The trial opens in France on Monday of a guitar teacher accused of flying in a gang of Georgian hitmen to murder his physiotherapist. The musician has accused the Parisian practitioner of causing him debilitating pain in the neck but has denied ever trying to kill him.
The physiotherapist was crossing the road to go to work in 2019, when a car accelerated and knocked him over before speeding off.
He survived with a bruise on his foot and trauma to his leg and told investigators he suspected the involvement of a former patient who held a grudge against him.
The order of physiotherapists had ordered him to pay his ex-client 30,000 euros (almost $32,000) in damages.
But through telephone tapping investigators discovered the client was allegedly still bent on revenge.
They found that the man's partner and her father, both Georgian, had allegedly helped recruit hitmen from the Caucasus country to take out the physiotherapist.
In 2018, the music teacher paid a first gang 2,000 euros ($2,130) but it never completed its mission.
His girlfriend then is alleged to have found a new team, including three men who flew over from Georgia to try to run over their target, then left the country.
The guitar teacher was allegedly planning to burglarise the therapist's home when police arrested him.
French authorities ordered 10 people to stand trial in the case, but three are in Georgia and one died in detention in February.
The guitar teacher, as well as four other men and a woman, are to appear in court in the case to run until May 10.
Most of them have been charged with plotting to carry out a murder in a gang, while one of them -- a friend -- has been accused of not reporting a crime.
Contacted by AFP, the guitar teacher's defence team refused to comment.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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