It’s for a fight that the gendarmes intervened, this November 19, near the Carrefour City of Crépy-en-Valois. Arriving on the scene, the soldiers learned that a man was threatening passers-by to get money. A witness then assures that he has just been attacked by the same individual and that he received a punch in the back. It didn’t take long for investigators to arrest the suspect. This is Pooran Lali Balkumar, 44, a Guyana national who is not going to be very cooperative.
He does not hesitate to spit on a gendarme while insulting her: “You fuck with white people, you dirty whore, I’m going to kill you all, the curse will fall on you…”
Placed in police custody, it was only after his time in the sobering up cell that he announced that he did not remember anything.
Insults for four hours
Before the bar of the Senlis judicial court where he appeared on November 20, he was a little more talkative: “That day, I met some friends in front of the supermarket and we drank wine… I never got up hand on anyone. The gendarmes took me to the brigade. I apologized for my behavior but when I woke up I was covered in bruises. I don’t know what really happened…”
The investigator, victim of the actions of the forty-year-old then testifies: “We intervened for a trivial brawl and from the start, he was very virulent. He was spitting all over our vehicle, he didn’t want us to take him to the hospital. We received insults from him for four hours…”
Arriving in France in 2002, the accused is recognized as a disabled worker and his criminal record includes several mentions for death threatsof the aggravated violencedomestic violence and insults towards the police. He specifies that he stayed four years in the foreign legion. He reacts to this enumeration: “I have already paid for all this… It’s in the past…”
“A certain tendency to reverse roles…”
For the public prosecutor, the amnesia put forward by the defendant is not credible: “During this hearing, I remembered a sentence from this young woman who told us that it is common to being insulted when you are a person holding public authority. During the debates, I noticed a certain tendency to reverse roles. The reality is outrages that last a very long time. I don’t understand how anyone can say he doesn’t remember anything. I don’t think he understands what a sentence represents… For all these reasons, I request 15 months in prison, including 6 months with a probationary suspension and for the remaining 9 months, a possible adjustment which will be decided by the judge of the application of sentences…”
On the defense side, lawyer Ruken Aydin believes that this file does not provide proof that his client really fought: “At no time did he admit to having given blows. At the start of his custody, he remained silent and the next day after sleeping, he noticed that he was covered in bruises. So what happened during all this time?”
Found guilty, Pooran Lali Balkumar received a sentence identical to the requisitions of the public prosecutor.
