Until the last moment, Omar Raddad hesitated to take the train to go to Paris on Thursday and go, at 2 p.m., to the Court of Cassation. The man with the slender figure, white hair and hollow features, sentenced in 1994 for the murder of Ghislaine Marchal before being partially pardoned, was worried about his reaction if the decision of the investigating committee was not favorable to him . How to face publicly if his request for a review trial were to be denied? What to answer to the journalists who came to collect his reaction after this final twist? “He finally decided not to come, he feels too fragile”, confided Wednesday evening his lawyer, Sylvie Noachovitch.
The latter is however relatively “serene” after the hearing, which was held behind closed doors at the end of November. “We have brought such decisive, even edifying elements that I cannot imagine an outright refusal [de la requête en révision]. “The lawyer notably presented to justice the conclusions of an expert report which analyzes in a new light the traces of DNA discovered in 2015 on the doors on which appeared the famous inscriptions” Omar killed me “and “Omar was traced to me with the blood of the victim.
35 traces of male DNA on one of the inscriptions
At the time, four distinct genetic fingerprints – two fully exploitable and two partial – belonging to four men had been isolated. But neither the comparison with the victim’s entourage, nor that with the national DNA file had made it possible to identify these individuals. The only certainty: these prints do not match those of Omar Raddad.
But it is an expertise of 2019 that could weigh the scales: this time, the expert noted the presence of 35 traces of one and the same male DNA, complete, on one of the two inscriptions “Omar m ‘ at t ”. Again, it is not that of Omar Raddad. Above all, the expertise concludes with the filing of these genetic fingerprints at the time of the murder and not of a “contamination” by an external speaker after the fact. A determining element since it undermines the theory according to which these inscriptions would have been written by the victim, dying, to denounce his murderer. Conversely, it reinforces the hypothesis according to which they would have been inscribed by a man seeking to designate a scapegoat.
When the body of Ghislaine Marchal is discovered, lying in the cellar of her property in Mougins, on the heights of Cannes, the investigation was immediately directed towards Omar Raddad, her gardener of Moroccan nationality. Despite many gray areas in this case, the man will be sentenced, in 1994, to 18 years of criminal imprisonment. Two years later, the then president, Jacques Chirac, granted him a partial pardon at the request of the king of Morocco, reducing his sentence to four years and eight months in prison. A reduction of the sentence which is not for all that a recognition of his innocence.
A first request already refused
In 2002, a first request for a review was filed, already in favor of scientific progress. At the time, two graphologists appointed by the review committee of the Court of Cassation questioned the identity of the author of the entry. “It is not certain that it was Mme Marchal who wrote ‘Omar killed me'”, they write in their report. In addition, a male DNA “in very low proportion” is identified on the accusing inscription, DNA which does not correspond to that of Omar Raddad. Despite this discovery, the Court of Revision rejected the request, considering that it was “impossible to determine when, prior to, concomitantly or after the murder, these traces were left. “
But since 2014, the legislation to initiate review procedures has been relaxed. “Before, it took almost certainty to reopen a case. From now on, doubts are sufficient, ”explains Sylvie Noachovitch. However, Omar Raddad will not be fixed on his fate this Thursday. The commission can either reject its request, or order additional information – which would result in new expert appraisals – or forward the file to the Court of Revision, which will then have to rule on the organization of ‘a new trial, an extremely rare procedure in France. “Given the content of the elements in the file, I would find it difficult to understand that they do not require, at least, new expertise”, insists the lawyer of Omar Raddad. Answer in the early afternoon.