25 years’ imprisonment for killing his friend

Chased away from the party by his companion, he pretended to forget the humiliation he had felt, but in fact he was plotting his revenge.

“I was so drunk that I don’t remember anything, Mr. President”, justifies the young man who was blamed for the death of a young man. Is he unaware that no crime or misdemeanor, however serious, can be justified by drunkenness? And yet, to every question put by the president of the criminal division of the Casablanca Court of Appeal, his answer was: “I was drunk”. However, witnesses, notably the night watchman who seems to have been present at the start of the fight, confirm that the accused wanted to end his friend’s life. The Public Prosecutor’s Office is also convinced that he committed his crime intentionally. This is why it has upheld the charge of premeditated homicide and ambush.

In fact, according to the minutes of the hearing of the accused, he is twenty-eight years old, an offender in his own right since he has already served two prison sentences for assault, one of two months and the second of a dozen months.

According to his statements recorded in the minutes, the accused was under the influence of alcoholic beverages when he met his friend, who suggested that they drink a few glasses of red wine together. He accepted. He resumed drinking with his friend until they had a misunderstanding over a cigarette. In fact, according to the defendant’s statements recorded in the PV, his friend, who had a pack of cigarettes, refrained from giving him one.

Enraged, he punched him and chased him away, preventing him from continuing to drink in his company. Deeply humiliated, he returned home pretending that nothing had happened. But the next evening, he phoned to ask her to join him for a drink. He did indeed buy a few beers, and the two of them began to get drunk. At around 4 a.m., when heads were turned, the accused stabbed him twice in the chest. He died in hospital.
 Arrested, he confessed his crime to the investigators, but denied it to the court, which found him guilty and sentenced him to 25 years’ imprisonment.