Moroccan Man Sentenced to 9 Months for Unlicensed Driving and Threats to Police in Pau, France

Soufiane was apprehended for lack of a sticker on the car he had just acquired in Orthez, and lack of a valid driver’s license in France. The defendant tried to flee on foot, but was caught by the agents. That’s when the situation deteriorated. The man of Moroccan origin hurled insults at a municipal police officer and made obscene gestures at a national police officer, reports La République des Pyrénées.

Transferred to the police station, he displayed an unheard-of verbal violence towards the agents. "Don’t come to Morocco you and your family, otherwise I’ll kill you", "I hate you, the French. The first Frenchman I see in Morocco, I’ll kill him", he threatened, according to the president at the hearing. In reference to the murder of Nahel, shot by a police officer in Nanterre on June 27, he would also have described France as a "shitty country". Placed in police custody, he would have tried to commit suicide by cutting the veins of his arm and strangling himself with his socks.

"It’s the young policeman who heated me up, he told me I was going to join my brothers in Morocco. They’re too racist here... In Morocco, we respect the French more. Here, they treat us like dogs," Soufiane, very agitated, declared at the bar. The Moroccan has been living illegally in France since 2015, and claims to want to settle in Italy soon. He has a well-stocked criminal record, having already been convicted four times for driving without a license.

Psychologically, the defendant is described by the psychiatric expert as an "anti-social" person. His case is "worrying and distressing," says the lawyer for the police officer he threatened to kill, claiming 1,200 euros for the moral damage suffered by his client. Prosecutor Marie Hirigoyen requested 9 months in prison against him. A sentence that Soufiane was ultimately sentenced to, despite the request for a proportionate sentence made by his lawyer, Me Isabelle Fitas. The court also awarded 500 euros in damages to the threatened police officer.