Armed robberies at gas stations in Gard: after twenty years, the accused admits the facts

Me Hélène Mordacq est l’avocate de Karim, qui risque jusqu’à vingt ans de réclusion criminelle. Midi Libre – E.A.

En revanche, l’accusé âgé aujourd’hui de 50 ans, refuse de donner le nom de son complice.

“C’était une période où j’étais ancré dans la délinquance”. This Monday, January 20, 2025, in the dock of the assize court, Karim, now 50 years old, says he is a completely different man. After denying for nearly twenty years his participation in a series of armed robberies of nine gas stations in Gard, Hérault and Vaucluse, this Monday, he admits to the facts. And this, after more than twenty years on the run.

“Give the cash”

This case dates back to between December 2003 and February 2004. Karim and another accomplice whose name he will not reveal, committed six robberies at gas stations. For the other three, the accused, defended by Me Hélène Mordacq, admits to having acted alone. “I must have been in need of drugs” , he replies to Isabelle Tourn, the attorney general, when she questions him about this change in operation. As for the course of these robberies, the various witness interviews suggest the same procedure. “It was around 6 p.m. There were two individuals on a motorbike, wearing gloves and balaclavas. They put some petrol in the pump and when it was time to pay, the passenger pulled out a gun and said to me, 'Give him the cash.' I gave him what I had,” explains Nadine*, a former cashier at a petrol station in Bollène, represented by Me Mallaury Font, of the Lyon bar. A traumatic episode, as the former employee explains, which resulted in a six-month work stoppage, then a nine-month therapeutic part-time job. “I'm really sorry,” the accused said.

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Convicted of a robbery… in Switzerland

In the end, the total of these thefts came to nearly 3,000 euros. Investigators were able to find Karim and a first supposed accomplice thanks to the testimonies, but also to the motorcycle used during the robberies. During the investigations, the police discovered that the latter had been stolen a few days earlier in Alès by a third individual. Arrested in connection with a completely different case, he admitted to several thefts, including that of the two-wheeler. He explained during his police custody that he had exchanged this motorcycle for 200 grams of cannabis resin for Karim. The helmets, as well as the keys to the motorcycle, but also the weapon, which turned out to be fake, were finally found in a car in Switzerland, while Karim and his supposed accomplice were arrested for a jewelry store robbery and… a gas station robbery. It was the same year, in 2003. They will be sentenced to five months in prison for these facts.

All these elements will lead to the conviction, in his absence, of the fifty-year-old, in 2014 to twenty years in prison for the robberies. A conviction to which he opposes, hence this new trial within the Assize Court of Nîmes. The second individual will be sentenced to 8 years in prison, then twelve years on appeal before being acquitted in 2017 after an appeal in cassation.

Left for 17 years in Algeria

Except that Karim, after his release in Switzerland in 2007, left for Algeria. Since then, he explains that he has rebuilt his life. “I started my own business in hydraulics, I got married and I have two children. My hands have always been useful for flying. In Algeria, I realized that they could work miracles”, he explained to the court. A professional reconversion that nevertheless challenges Christian Pasta, president of the court: “In 2014, a European arrest warrant was issued against you. No one told you about it ?”. “No, Mr. President. The only time I heard about it was when I was arrested in Algeria for drunk driving (where he was sentenced to six months in prison for involuntary manslaughter because his cousin, who was in the vehicle, died during the accident, Editor's note) –. The Algerian court asked France three times to send my file, but they never received it”, he emphasizes. According to him, he was acquitted during this trial, without a file.

Finally, it was in 2024, during a trip to Spain that Karim was arrested by Interpol. Since then, he has been incarcerated at the Villepinte remand center, in the Seine-Saint-Denis department. The trial continues this Tuesday, with in particular the hearing of Karim, who will have to explain the facts of which he is accused. He faces up to twenty years of criminal imprisonment.

*The first name has been changed. I subscribe to read the rest