“But that’s for sure! It’s obvious ! The trial will be overhauled! »Between a radio show and another on television, Sylvie Noachovitch goes over the thread of her messages. And so it is from her dressing room and on loudspeaker that she distills her effects and expresses her confidence in the latest “twist” in the Omar Raddad affair.
The lawyer of the Moroccan gardener, convicted in 1991 for the murder of Ghislaine Marchal, will file, this Thursday morning, a request for review to obtain a new trial which, she hopes, will exonerate her client. For this, it intends to promote a new analysis of the DNA traces present at the scene of the crime. Explanations …
Under what circumstances was Omar Raddad convicted?
On June 23, 1991, Ghislaine Marchal, the rich widow of an automotive supplier, was discovered bathing in her blood in the cellar of her property located in Mougins (Alpes-Maritimes). She succumbed to more than a dozen violent stab wounds, one of them piercing the liver, another almost severing her finger.
Arriving on site, investigators first discovered that the door to this cellar had been closed from the inside. And, above all, that inscriptions in letters of blood adorned two doors: “Omar killed me” on the door of the wine cellar and “Omar took me” on that of the boiler room.
Quickly arrested, Omar Raddad, his gardener, was sentenced in 1994 to 18 years of criminal imprisonment without the possibility of appealing. But in 1996, he benefited from a partial pardon from Jacques Chirac allowing him to get out of prison, without being exonerated. Since then, he has been claiming his innocence and calling for a review trial in order to be cleared.
How is his request for review motivated?
This Thursday, the defense of Omar Raddad will file a request for review, believing that there is new information on the DNA traces discovered on the inscriptions in letters of blood. They are not that new. In fact, an expert, Doctor Olivier Pascal, in 2015 identified four DNAs (two complete and two incomplete) on the famous doors. At the time, like 20 minutes had revealed it, a man had even been suspected, before being exonerated.
If justice did not follow up, Omar Raddad’s lawyer continued the work. And, in 2019, it entrusted a new expert with a second analysis of the work carried out by Olivier Pascal. In a report, he claims to have discovered that DNA is present in letters of blood about thirty times and, above all, that it is a contact DNA and not a DNA that would have “contaminated” the exhibit unintentionally. It is this element that the defense of Omar Raddad intends to put forward to obtain a new trial.
Why did you wait today to file this request?
Asked by 20 minutes, Sylvie Noachovitch indicates that she has left “time for justice to respond to its questions and its requests for additional investigations” since 2019. Having had no return, she decided to file, herself, a request for review. Which also coincides with the 30th anniversary of the murder of Ghislaine Marchal.
Other sources are more dubious. “There is nothing new in all this, if it is not the use by the defense of elements known for five years”, taunts a keen connoisseur of the file. Especially since a first request had already been rejected in 2002. Contacted by 20 minutes, the Nice prosecutor’s office, for its part, refused to comment on this case.
The decision therefore now rests with the petitions committee of the Court of Revision. It could be returned in the coming weeks. Since 1945, only a dozen convicts have been exonerated after a review trial.