Yasser (not his real name) isn’t very happy to be here. This 37-year-old Tunisian, now living in Italy where he works regularly as a mechanic, had to return to France for a case that arose a few months ago in Rive-de-Gier. And he doesn’t really like it.
The defendant therefore responded monosyllabically to the president of the Saint-Étienne Criminal Court. Yes, he was stopped by the police in February 2025 while he and another individual were inspecting a BMW with its hood open in a riverside parking lot. Yes, he was dressed as a mechanic. Yes, he was carrying several wads of cash, hidden in his pants. A tidy sum: 10,200 euros in total.
Yasser has no criminal record. At the time, he claimed that the money had been entrusted to him by his brother. “I was supposed to buy a car and take it to Tunisia,” he explained. The homeless man was traveling between Germany, Italy, and France. He had been in Rive-de-Gier for four days.
The suspicious justice system is questioning the origin of the 10,000 euros. Drug money? It is therefore prosecuting Yasser for money laundering and, more specifically, for aiding in the false justification of the origin or income of the perpetrator of a crime or offense.
For the prosecutor, there’s no doubt. “He now claims that it was his cousin who lent him the money. That’s not quite the same thing…”
The defense attorney objects. “He’s repairing a vehicle in a parking lot, and this check arrives. He spontaneously hands over the bundles of cash he has in his pockets, that’s important! The version he presents is perfectly credible. To establish guilt, it’s not enough to simply have a sum of cash on you; you also have to prove that this money comes from drug trafficking.”
The court, finding that “the offense was not proven,” acquitted Yasser. The thirty-year-old will be reimbursed the 10,200 euros he had been loaned. By his brother. Or his cousin.
Source: c.leprogres.fr