Prosecutor Seeks to Uphold 8-Year Sentence for Driver in Fatal Montpellier Child Pedestrian Crash

No mitigating circumstances for Karem El Rekab! Sentenced by the criminal court to eight years in prison with a ban on retaking the driving test for ten years. The 34-year-old from Montpellier was retried before the court of appeal on Thursday, March 16. "I really regret this tragedy, he said from the dock. It haunts me every day, every night. I wanted to apologize. I haven’t had a drop of alcohol for two years and I’ve also quit drugs."

After spending a year in pre-trial detention, the individual from Lodève had been released on August 22, 2022. However, three days later, he had been apprehended at Marignane airport while trying to flee to Morocco and had been imprisoned again. This latest event had not had a favorable impact on his trial, which took place on December 8, 2022.

The facts date back to 2021. While Karem was driving with a blood alcohol level of 0.9 g on August 21, his Peugeot 607 had fatally hit Adam, 9 years old, who was on the sidewalk with his mother and 8-year-old sister. The death of the teenager had "plunged 52 people into darkness", recalled on behalf of the civil parties the lawyer Laëtitia Leroy-Szwed, who became the spokesperson for a "very close-knit family". After saluting "the courage and the sense of measure" of this family, the public prosecutor launched at the convicted person: "If you are depressed, it is your problem, not that of a family walking on the sidewalk". He requested "the confirmation of the first judgment", reports Midi Libre.