Arnaud Mimran’s appeal trial opened on Tuesday
The former businessman is retried for the kidnapping, kidnapping and extortion by organized gang of a wealthy Swiss trader in 2015.
French ex-businessman Arnaud Mimran was also one of four inmates tried for a corruption case that occurred at Fresnes prison in July 2016.
AFP/BERTRAND GUAY
The appeal trial of the sulphurous businessman Arnaud Mimran for the kidnapping and sequestration with a view to his extortion of a wealthy Swiss financier in January 2015 opened on Tuesday before an Assize Court in the south-east of Paris .
Sentenced to 13 years’ imprisonment in June 2021, he is retried until December 16 for kidnapping, forcible confinement and extortion in an organized gang, and took his place in the accused’s box on Tuesday, in a white shirt and dark jacket.
At his side, another defendant, sentenced to eight years in prison at first instance and who appears free.
fake cops
On January 15, 2015, a Swiss trader was kidnapped near Paris by four hooded men posing as police officers and taken to an apartment in Aubervilliers (Seine-Saint-Denis).
His jailers order him to buy a few million euros of securities from a company under American law considered an “empty shell”, of which Arnaud Mimran and his ex-partner are shareholders.
The day after the kidnapping, Mr. Mimran, now 50 years old, is also sequestered for a few hours, but, according to the prosecution, it was a “staging” to crack the financier Swiss and force him to make his first purchases.
The victim will finally be released on the sixth day of sequestration, “after purchase orders made”.
Indebted
Mr. Mimran is the “main actor” in the extortion of which he is “the main beneficiary, and “caused the victim to come to Paris” on January 15, 2015, “attracting him into a veritable ambush” , according to the reasons of the Court of Assizes of Paris, read Tuesday at the hearing.
Debted, in a situation of “virtual bankruptcy”, Arnaud Mimran would have decided to mount this “coup” to earn money quickly, by bringing in the Swiss banker under a false pretext.
He would then have called on “Titax”, considered a rising figure in organized crime and met through the ex-Thai boxing champion Farid Khider, and his “team of criminals” to put his plan into action. .
“Titax” was killed outside his home during the Swiss kidnapping. His death is not related to the kidnapping.
At the first trial in June 2021, two other men, including Farid Khider, were acquitted. Two others, including one absent at the hearing but arrested since, were sentenced but did not appeal.
ATS
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