On March 2, 2024, Sliman Chouail-Chaila, 49, left prison after spending three months there for refusing to comply and driving while under the influence of alcohol. Three months in prison under probation loom over his head: he finds a job and retakes his license. He seems to have understood that when he has been drinking, he should not drive.
On January 11, a friend with whom he had already drunk a lot invited him to a night at a club where, given their condition, they were turned away. We have to leave again. The friend then got into the passenger seat, declaring that he was not fit to drive. Sliman Chouail-Chaila felt obliged to take the wheel.
Two chases with the police
The car, with all lights off, drives on the D200 in the direction of Montataire (Oise) when it crosses that of a gendarmerie patrol. The soldiers turned around and, with siren and flashing lights on, began an initial chase for a few hundred meters. They catch up with the car driven by the defendant, telling him to follow them so they can carry out the check in complete safety. Sliman Chouail-Chaila starts, starts by following them, then he takes another direction. A second chase then begins during which the fugitive’s car hits the guardrail, which does not prevent him from continuing on his way. Sliman Chouail-Chaila will finally stop.
He was taken to the Brenouille gendarmerie and placed in sobering up with a blood alcohol level of 1.54 grams of alcohol per liter of blood. He is heard at 2:45 p.m. and admits that he “didn’t think» and that he “regrets what he did“, but as his friend was no longer able to drive, he felt obliged to get behind the wheel.
Already 20 convictions on his criminal record
The man was presented this Monday, January 13 to the Beauvais court, for immediate appearance. With twenty convictions on his criminal record, mainly due to traffic offenses, while he is under probation, the president of the court asks “how to stop him from driving when he has been drinking“.
The prosecutor’s deputy, “made concerned by the intolerable statements of the defendant who has always benefited from light sentences and whom the justice system has helped a lot» proposes a heavy prison sentence: twenty-four months in prison including six months under probation as well as, as the sentencing judge wishes when noting the ineffectiveness of this sentence, the revocation of the three months in prison under probationary suspension. A total of twenty-one months in prison, with warrant of committal.
The facts being recognized, defense lawyer Amélie Martinez pleads “the alcohol addiction in which his client is anchored: it does not allow him to reason“. She notes that he “honors his parental responsibilities towards his son, aged 11, whom he raises alone, works and regularly retests his driving license“.
He will spend just under two years in prison
Sliman Chouail-Chaila, was found guilty. He was sentenced to twenty-four months in prison, including eighteen months in prison, and his three-month suspended sentence from December 20, 2023 was revoked in full. He will spend twenty-one months in prison, with a warrant of committal. He will also spend two years under probation with obligation to receive alcohol treatment, work and pay the sums owed to the public treasury. His license is cancelled. He will have to wait six months before requesting a new one and will only be able to drive vehicles equipped with an alcohol immobilizer.
