In Colmar (Haut-Rhin),
Suddenly a few tears flowed. Not long. Jean-Marc Reiser wiped them off very quickly. Launched by the president for possible spontaneous declarations, he had just revealed a certain emotion. For the first time, or almost, of his appeal trial for the murder of Sophie Le Tan in 2018.
“I absolutely do not deny my responsibility in the causes of Sophie Le Tan’s death,” began the 62-year-old man after hesitating for a moment in front of the microphone. “I am well aware that violence was the cause of his death and the pain that I inflicted on his family. They can never forgive me. I am aware of having destroyed this family and in a way mine too. »
Strong words, addressed to the court in a fairly monotonous voice, without looking back. Standing in his box, Jean-Marc Reiser does not stop there. “I think about what happened every day. I wish I could go back and change things. But I cannot, I am not God, ”adds the accused, repeating his regrets to those close to Sophie Le Tan. “I can only ask for forgiveness but it won’t change anything. It won’t ease their pain. »
“It’s awful what I did”
A few meters away, the parents of the victim do not move, seated in the front row on the opposite side. The mother, who had collapsed several times both in the first instance and here in Colmar, remains upright. Her husband listens attentively to the translator next to him. Without ever looking at the man who had been sentenced to life imprisonment last year in Strasbourg.
“I wanted to spare my family and my daughter”, tries to justify the person concerned, who has long denied the facts, until confessing them after two and a half years of procedure. “I locked myself in denial because it was not to be admitted. It’s horrible what I did. I killed a 20-year-old girl. The tears stream down her face precisely at that moment, quickly swept away. The moment of trouble has passed: the man is now silent.
The session can resume a more expected turn, with a morning devoted to the interrogation of the accused by President Christine Schlumberger. During which she repeatedly taunts the sexagenarian about his contradictions. But why did you recognize the murder after seven long interrogations before the investigating judge? Why also invent this story of Sophie Le Tan’s cut when the victim’s blood was discovered in your apartment?
“Selective memory”
“I was in a state of total denial. I denied everything. Several times I thought I was telling the truth but I didn’t have the courage,” replies Jean-Marc Reiser with a slightly more confident tone. The one who then allows him to repeat that his gesture was, according to him, nothing premeditated. “I had no reason to take it out on her. I hadn’t brought him up to my house to assassinate him. »
But then, why did he post several rental ads for his apartment on Leboncoin, including one with photos of his mother’s accommodation? Why did you subscribe to several telephone lines? Why did you only offer visits to girls? Why did you give a meeting place visible from his home?
“I don’t remember any more”, blows the accused when he does not launch into rather eccentric explanations where his responsibility is rarely engaged. “You have a selective memory, it will have escaped no one. You quoted us just now a call number of the file and there, you no longer remember”, retorts Christine Schlumberger, even more biting when her interlocutor speaks of “secret garden” to legitimize her multiple telephone purchases. “We cannot speak of a secret garden, rather of a shadowy side,” she asserts.
The long duel, often lively between an incisive magistrate and a determined eye-catching Jean-Marc Reiser, continues throughout the morning. The afternoon will be devoted to the intervention of psychiatric experts, before the pleadings and the indictment on Wednesday where it will once again be a question of premeditation. The deliberation is expected Thursday morning.