The sentences were handed down after seven days of a particularly grueling trial. For having killed Wilhem Houssin near Rennes in July 2021, two young men were convicted of murder and received sentences of twelve and twenty years in prison. The shortest sentence targets a man who was a minor at the time of the facts, committed in the Morinais district, in Saint-Jacques-de-la-Lande (Ille-et-Vilaine). Bachir Ben Chouika, a 24-year-old Tunisian, and the young minor were found guilty of beating the then 49-year-old musician to death by kicking him. “They were playing football with my son’s head,” the victim’s father testified on the eve of the verdict, reports France 3 Bretagne.
Three other young people were sentenced to sentences ranging from ten to fourteen years in prison. They were not found guilty of murder but of violence resulting in death without intention of causing it.
The origin of the attack remains unclear
The death of Wilhem Houssin, a well-known musician in the cultural sector, sparked a wave of indignation in the town. Especially since the motive for this violence still remains unclear, with some not hesitating to suggest that the forty-year-old had died “for nothing”.
According to the victim’s father, the latter had simply asked for an address from this group of young people gathered at the bottom of a building. Wilhem Houssin was heavily intoxicated and an altercation quickly broke out. An anonymous witness, interviewed by video and with a modified voice to avoid retaliation, explained that the victim had been violently beaten to the ground. To the point that this witness believed “that they were playing football”.
