Nearly three years after the mob stabbings allegedly carried out by a group of youths at a dance party in the small French village of Crépol, judges have determined to charge 12 defendants with murder and attempted murder with the aggravating circumstance of “racism against white people and the French nation”.
On the evening of November 18th, 2023, the annual winter ball in the Drôme village of Crépol in southeastern France turned from revelry to horror, as a group of “outsiders” descended upon the dance hall and allegedly stabbed over a dozen people, seriously injuring three and killing 16-year-old high school student Thomas Perotto.
The alleged attackers were said to have come from the multicultural La Monnaie neighbourhood of the nearby commune of Romans-sur-Isère.
Following years of legal wrangling, the two investigating judges issued an indictment order against 12 defendants on Friday, charging 11 juveniles with the murder of Perotto and the attempted murder of three others at the dance, while charging a 12th man with aggravated assault with a firearm as a repeat offender.
Critically, the judges decided to charge all defendants with the aggravating circumstance of anti-white and anti-French racism, the local Le Dauphiné Libéré newspaper reported.
In their ruling, the judges said that “19 eyewitnesses and one defendant reported statements that were offensive to the honour and reputation of white people belonging to the French nation, made before, during, or after the violence.”
According to initial information, witnesses were said to hear the outsiders shout “We are here to stab white people!” as they attacked the villagers.
Due to French privacy laws, the defendants have not been publicly named. Contemporaneous reports claimed that at least one of the alleged attackers was “of North African origin” while another was said to have had “a historically French first and last name”.
It has also yet to be determined which of the defendants were physically responsible for the stabbings, with the investigating judges saying: “It must be noted that, given the complexity of the case due to the nature of the events—a scene of collective violence involving a large number of participants—the ‘code of silence’ observed by the defendants did not help uncover the truth.”
“Indeed, both the analysis of certain cell phones and wiretaps demonstrated that some of them possessed information about the events or the perpetrators, information they took care to conceal.”
The decision by the judges to charge the defendants with crimes aggravated by anti-white racism came despite the local Valence public prosecutor’s office saying that while there were “racist insults” made by both parties during the incident, they could not determine a racial motive behind the attack.
Le Figaro reported that the ruling came after the judges were presented with evidence from the General Alliance Against Racism and for Respect for French and Christian Identity (AGRIF), which has become a civil party involved in the case and is representing two young men who were present at the Crépol dance on the night of the attack.
However, three defence lawyers involved in the case have appealed the aggravating circumstance of racism and filed a motion calling for the recusal of the investigating judges who made the ruling.
Commenting on the decision to include charges of anti-white racism, the Mayor of Romans-sur-Isère, Marie-Hélène Thoraval, said that she welcomed the news.
“I was the only one to express it, and I say it again today: it is essential to hear the victims’ voices. I have always said that this is a debate that must take place and be brought to the table. It will then be up to the judges to assess and judge,” she said. “Such actions and such violence are detrimental to a community that has successfully integrated and is now suffering the consequences of these actions. Finally, the victims have been heard. Each time, they emphasised this racist dimension, but they were neither understood nor believed. Today, they are, and that is a very good thing!”