Overview
- The proceedings concern the 2021 death of 19-year-old medical student Simon Guermonprez, who went to a highway overpass after an integration party and was fatally struck by a truck.
- Two students are tried for hazing and a third for complicity, the University of Lille is directly cited at the family’s request for involuntary manslaughter and hazing, and the truck driver faces involuntary manslaughter charges.
- The prosecutor requested a general acquittal, saying investigators did not establish that the student was intoxicated, forced to drink, or subjected to humiliating or degrading acts.
- Details outlined in court included alcohol served with 50–60 ml syringes, a system marking abstainers with “H2O” and drinkers with a “target,” and an event organized by a student group called Les Borgia with teams for logistics and safety.
- The driver testified the victim threw himself under the truck, the victim’s father rejects any suicide theory and argues his son was disoriented by alcohol, and a 2022 IGESR report cited the university for institutional passivity regarding banned integration events.