Boxer Pleads Innocence in Emotional Court Hearing for Attempted Murder Charges

"Please, Madam Judge, help me! I am the victim of an injustice; I have been in prison for nothing for six months. I went to settle some stories, and I ended up in prison. I beg you, help me!", pleads Karim Yahiaoui. The boxer is suspected of two attempted murders, reports Midi Libre.

The president recalls that three procedures are joined. In February, a man had been almost slit during a fight, at night. That same night, Karim, injured to the hand and hospitalized, tried to see the injured person. On July 30, two violent altercations occurred in the Lemasson district, with gunshots and stabbings. The boxer is suspected of being the shooter. The target: two brothers. In February, one of them was shot dead, in La Mosson, with a Kalashnikov burst.

"With these attempted murders he is accused of, we are in complete delirium," estimates Figuerroa, his lawyer. "He intervened, he did not give a single blow. Everyone knows that these two brothers are involved in trafficking and had disputes with many people," the lawyer continues. "He’s a big guy who’s at the end of his rope. I’m very worried."

"Patrick Vignal had come to see me to set up big brother and mediator brigades, and I made the mistake of improvising as a mediator," Karim Yahiaoui confided to the court. "I knew this young man who lived on Rue de la Méditerranée, and I went to see him in prison, as I went to see other young people from the neighborhoods of Montpellier," confirms the LREM deputy of Hérault, also a candidate for mayor of Montpellier.

"When he started boxing again, he wanted to get out of it; he came to see me and I told him about my project of ambassadors of the territory, respected women and men who can help the municipal police," he says. "But these are people who work with their heads, not with their fists. I’m afraid it’s too late for Karim."