2023-10-31 20:28:35
The Olympique Lyonnais team bus after it was attacked, in Marseille, October 29, 2023. CHRISTOPHE SIMON/AFP
Less than forty-eight hours after the violence which preceded the Ligue 1 match between Olympique de Marseille (OM) and Olympique Lyonnais (OL) and led to the postponement of this flagship match of the 10th day of the championship, two OM supporters were called to court for immediate appearance on Tuesday October 31.
Thomas S., a 22-year-old storekeeper, and Patrice G., 50, an executive in a large commercial brand, did not participate in the attack on the OL team bus, during which the Lyon coach Fabio Grosso was spectacularly injured. These two men, natives of Marseille, and regulars at OM matches, had planned to go to the Stade-Vélodrome to attend the match. They were both arrested a few minutes earlier at the scene of another, less publicized attack: that targeting six of the ten buses transporting some 600 Lyon supporters authorized by the authorities to travel.
Placed in police custody, Thomas S. and Patrice G. did not deny their participation in part of these clashes. But, before the Marseille court, they both requested a postponement of their trial “to better prepare their defense”. If the second, accused of having thrown a smoke bomb at the Lyon supporters, was placed under judicial supervision, the first, hooded during his arrest, was kept in detention pending his trial.
“We learned of the procedure this morning”, explained, before the hearing, François Defendini, Patrice G.’s lawyer, to justify the request for postponement. The media and political impact caused by the postponement of the match and the images of the injury of the Lyon coach, which required thirteen stitches and led to a temporary work interruption of thirty days, also weighed in the choice of the defendants to not be tried in immediate appearance. Following the events, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, notably asked the courts “greater firmness towards the authors” of violence on the sidelines of sporting events.
“Not trivial facts”
Although they were not judged, the hearing of the two Marseille supporters allowed us to find out a little more about the incidents which took place around the Stade-Vélodrome. First to appear in court, Thomas S. is accused of having thrown a stone at one of the Lyon buses. Gray hoodie, jeans, he lives in Pennes-Mirabeau (Bouches-du-Rhône), a neighboring town to Marseille, with his parents – she, a pharmacist, he, an accountant. For two and a half years, the young man has been a forklift driver for a materials supplier in the industrial zone of Vitrolles (Bouches-du-Rhône) and, according to his lawyer Sandrine Prosperi, is very conscientious.
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