Moroccan Man Confesses to 2016 Avignon Computer Store Murder After Years of Denial

At the opening of his appeal trial, before the Gard Assize Court in Nîmes, El Mehdi Namous, aged 32, has just lifted part of the secret he had been hiding for more than four years. Thus, this is the first time that the Moroccan-born defendant has admitted the facts, whereas he had never ceased to proclaim his innocence. A real mystery. The only survivor has no memory of this case. It is Yan Vigouroux, the salesman hit in the back and head, and who miraculously survived, reports the newspaper Midi Libre.

The analysis of the surveillance camera images established that it was the Moroccan. On May 17, 2019, he was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a 22-year security period, followed by a permanent ban on staying in French territory. A new team of lawyers, composed of Me Orane Quenot and Me Yassine Maharsi, has been set up. The verdict will be known next Thursday.

To recall, on January 25, 2016, gunshots were fired in a computer store, Cybertek, in the Cap Sud shopping center in Avignon. Martial Debauge, 47, a customer, was killed on the spot. At the home of the accused in Avignon, on May 17, 2016, a 16-gauge rifle and cartridges similar to those used at the crime scene were found during a search. So much damning evidence in the face of which Mehdi Namous had never ceased to proclaim his innocence.