The Tournai council chamber has decided to reclassify the facts against the driver who hit a carnival procession in Strépy-Bracquegnies on March 20. Paolo F., whose preventive detention has been extended, is now being prosecuted for murder and no longer for manslaughter, announces Sudinfo.
The information was confirmed by the driver’s lawyer, Paolo F. The latter did not specify whether he intended to appeal this decision. This reclassification as murder therefore means that the Tournai council chamber believes that Paolo F. would have intended to kill the day of the tragedy. He also risks a heavier prison sentence, which can go up to thirty years of imprisonment, specifies Sudinfo.
This Friday, it was announced that Paolo F would be kept in preventive detention for two months. His lawyer had requested in May that he be kept in detention under an electronic bracelet, a request which had been followed by the council chamber. The prosecution appealed the decision. The Tournai indictment chamber then decided in June to keep him in prison.
The person concerned is the subject of an arrest warrant issued on March 22 for acts committed on March 20 at the carnival of Strépy-Bracquegnies. The driver had returned with his car to the carnival procession in the early morning, killing six people and injuring around thirty others.