On Wednesday May 18th Younès Bounouara, who has described himself as a “foot soldier” for billionaire industrialist and right-wing politician Serge Dassault, was jailed for 15 years for attempted murder. The court at Évry, south of Paris, found him guilty of trying to shoot and kill a man called Fatah Hou on February 19th, 2013.
The court had heard that a few months before the shooting Hou had met with Dassault in Corbeil-Essonnes, near Évry, where the industrialist had been mayor from 1995 to 2009, and had secretly filmed their conversation. In the recording Dassault admits to having handed over money, apparently to buy votes in the town as part of an organised system of alleged electoral corruption. In particular, Dasault said that he had given Bounouara two million euros. A report about the existence of this covert recording and its contents later appeared in the investigative weekly Le Canard Enchaîné, and the court was told that it was the publication of details of the payment that was behind Bounouara's attempt on local boxer Hou's life. “I wanted to denounce the Dassault system. Does that merit death?” Hou told the court.
One of Younès Bounouara's lawyers, Karine Bouden, said she was “disappointed” by the verdict and jail term - which was longer than the prosecution had called for - and that they were considering an appeal. Her client had denied the charges, claiming the shooting was an accident and that he had just wanted to “frighten” the victim.
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But for Fatah Hou, who nearly died from his injuries, the verdict came as a vindication and a relief. “I think that a system of defence has been punished,” said his lawyer Marie Dosé. “They tried to force Corbeil-Essonnes law into the courtroom and no one managed to do it. They tried to suggest that on the one side there were scoundrels who were doing the threatening, and on the other side were the poor victims of these bullies, in other words the Dassault system and Mr Bounouara. That is absolutely not the case and the court understood that,” she said.
Bounouara's defence strategy had indeed been a very aggressive one. A string of witnesses came forward in a bid to to tarnish the victim, Fatah Hou, and to claim that it was he who had harassed Younès Bounouara for money. A private detective was hired to try to thrown doubt over the extent of the victim's injuries and a variety of unsustainable accusations were made. One of the defendant's lawyers, David-Olivier Kaminski, even tried to suggest that Hou had been behind a violent attack on the daughter of Dassault's ex-chief of staff. This was despite the fact that at the time Hou was still in a convalescence centre recovering from his injuries. David-Olivier Kaminski also started to cry as he begged the jury: “This man must be freed, what's happened to him is unfair.”
The jurors, however, rejected these claims. The court took the view that when Younès Bounouara fired his .357 Magnum at the car driven by Fata Hou on February 19th, 2013, his intention to kill was proven beyond “any possible doubt” because of the “weapon that was used, the distance of the shot, the location of the bullet impacts and the attitude of the shooter”. Two witnesses described this attitude as calm and determined.
The jury refused to accept Bounouara's claim that he had fired the second shot because a friend grabbed hold of him at that moment, basing their reasoning in particular on evidence from ballistic experts and eyewitnesses. They had also heard that the friend involved – a man named Khalid Tejjini – had “denied” Bounouara's claim during the police and judicial investigation. Curiously, Tejjini did not give evidence - though he had shown up on the first day of the trial - with the police being unable to locate him.
During the trial prosecutor Jean-Michel Bourles, who had called for a jail term of 12 years, had described the background of Younès Bounouara, who had lost his father at the age of five and who had grown up on the Les Tarterêts estate in Corbeil, one of the most difficult estates in France. In 1995, aged 20, he had met the new mayor of Corbeil, Serge Dassault. “An important man, a billionaire, who took an interest in him, who listened to him and who of course used him: you don't get something for nothing,” said Jean-Michel Bourles.
Younès Bounouara helped Dassault bring peace to Les Tarterêts estate, and then to pour millions into the area to buy “social peace” - even elections. “Younès Bounouara navigated his way through all that, he was present during the development of the system, he profited from it in a systematic way,” said prosecutor Jean-Michel Bourles. Indeed, Bounouara had received money after each election, including two million euros after the local elections in 2010.
On the estates this level of money provoked envy and demands for a share in the proceeds but, said Jean-Michel Bourles, at the time Dassault's foot soldier was an imposing figure weighing 150 kg. “No one dared to intervene because everyone was afraid of his physical presence and because he was close to the mayor,” said the prosecutor.
Jean-Michel Bourles also pointed out that Bounouara had never complained of being harassed. “When Bounouara's troubles started, between 2008 and 2012, the Right was in power [editor's note, at national level],” said the prosecutor. “If Mr Dassault picked up the phone the ministers of the interior of the day answered immediately, and I think that the director in charge of public safety in the Essonne [editor's note, the département or county where Corbeil is situated] would have heard about it within a moment.”
The prosecutor also dealt with events on the day of the shooting on February 19th, 2013, which occurred a few weeks after Le Canard Enchaîné had reported on the two million euros that Bounouara had received from the billionaire. Dassault's henchman thus had “good reason to be angry with Fatah Hou. This information was dangerous for him, because it bolstered all those who were demanding money from him,” said Jean-Michel Bourles.
After a roadside bust-up with Fatah Hou, Bounouara went to get a gun and was heard on several occasions on his phone saying that he was going to kill him. Half an hour later, as he was sitting on a café terrace, Bounouara fired twice as Hou drove past in a car.
When the court gave its verdict on Wednesday it did not mention the alleged electoral corruption in Corbeil-Essonnes, even though it had been discussed at some length during the trial itself. Younès Bounouara is currently under formal investigation – one step short of charges being brought – for being an accomplice to buying votes, along with Dassault himself; both deny the claims.
However, Hou's lawyer Marie Dosé said the verdict was “also a message to those who have made Corbeil and who are still building on Corbeil's ruins, and who obviously were not here”. This was a clear reference to Serge Dassault and his employee and successor as mayor Jean-Pierre Bechter, who did not comply with summonses to appear as witnesses at the trial. Dassault's lawyer wrote to the court to say that the industrialist had received his summons “too late” and was abroad for business reasons. Bechter, who like Dassault is under formal investigation for “buying votes” or being an accomplice to it in local elections in 2008, 2009 and 2010, claims he also denies, sent a medical certificate to excuse his absence.
For Dassault, who is also a senator for the right-wing Les Républicains party presided over by Nicolas Sarkozy, the judicial saga is far from over. In addition to the ongoing investigation into alleged vote-buying, which is nearing its conclusion, Dassault also faces trial in Paris on July 4th for the alleged laundering of money that was not declared to the tax authorities and for a failure to make full disclosure of all his finances as a Parliamentarian. These allegations relate to the sums that Dassault distributed in Corbeil. Dassault denies any wrongdoing.
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- The French version of this article can be found here.
English version by Michael Streeter