Drug trafficking: the trio of lawyers who are shaking up the judiciary

On Wednesday, July 23, at the Nancy Court of Appeal, the presiding judge reviewed the criminal record of 42-year-old Osman Y., including twelve years spent behind bars. A long pedigree as a trafficker, which began in his late teens. A life punctuated by prison sentences and drug trafficking of all kinds. In this new case, he is suspected of possessing, transporting, and importing cannabis, cocaine, and heroin between Belgium, the Netherlands, and Meurthe-et-Moselle. He faces ten years in prison. But his Parisian lawyer, Thomas Bidnic, is determined to get him out of prison immediately.

His calculation is mathematical: the prosecution has apparently not respected the legal deadline of thirty days to rule, since his appeal filed on June 17, against his client's pretrial detention. This would mean that Osman Y. has been in arbitrary detention for five days. And that he must be released immediately.

"The worst thing in a society is not drug trafficking, it is the arbitrariness of the State, of justice. I ask you to fulfill your mission and guarantee fundamental freedoms," declared the lawyer before the court. A sign of the ambient embarrassment, the three judges of the appeal court began to whisper among themselves, much more than usual. The public prosecutor, who represented the prosecution, stammered: "I am not a horrible fascist prosecutor who orders arbitrary detentions." The lawyer replied: "I am sure you are not a fascist, but it might be worse." Pure Bidnic. The court was due to deliver its decision on the morning of Wednesday, July 30.

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