“The request is declared inadmissible”, announced to AFP the council of the family of Ghislaine Marchal, information confirmed by judicial source.
After learning of the decision, rendered behind closed doors by the investigative committee of the Court of Revision, Omar Raddad’s lawyer told the press “scandalized”. “I will never let go of Omar Raddad”, affirmed Me Sylvie Noachovitch, announcing that she “(would seize) the European Court of Human Rights”.
“My determination is intact,” she said again, before informing her client of this “bad news” by telephone.
The former Moroccan gardener of Ghislaine Marchal had been condemned in 1994 for the murder of the latter to eighteen years of criminal imprisonment, then partially pardoned but not cleared.
Omar Raddad had been designated by the inscription “Omar killed me” drawn with the victim’s blood, a mismatch which placed the case among the most famous and controversial criminal files in France.
After a first rejection twenty years ago, he filed a new request for review of his conviction on June 24, 2021, thirty years to the day after the discovery of the body of Ghislaine Marchal, the wealthy widow of an automotive supplier. She lived in Mougins on the Côte d’Azur.
Omar Raddad’s defense pinned its hopes on scientific progress in DNA and a law that relaxes the criteria for obtaining a review of a trial.
In December, the ex-gardener had obtained from the commission of instruction that additional investigations be carried out.
This additional information aimed to determine the scope of the conclusions of a genetic expert called upon by Me Noachovitch, concerning four unidentified male DNA found in 2015 on seals from the crime scene and which do not correspond to the genetic profile of the victim. ex-gardener.
Ghislaine Marchal was found dead at the age of 65 in the boiler room of her property on June 24, 1991. Two accusatory inscriptions in letters of blood – “Omar m’a tuiller” and “Omar m’a t” – had been discovered on two doors .
In notes from 2019 and 2020, the genetics expert revealed the importance of one of the four unknown male DNAs, present in many places and in particular on the inscription “Omar m’a t”, alone or mixed with the blood of the victim.
The expert favored the hypothesis of a deposit of DNA during the facts and not of a later “pollution”, in particular by the investigators.
In other words, these genetic traces could have been deposited by the author of the inscription, who would then not be Ghislaine Marchal but potentially the real murderer, estimated the defense of Omar Raddad.
– “Secret” investigation –
The former gardener’s lawyer had also presented new elements in May, this time from a “secret investigation” by the gendarmerie between 2002 and 2004, after the confidences of an informant on a possible villainous motive.
Me Noachovitch asked in particular for the designation of a laboratory specialized in kinship research to determine to whom belong the unknown DNA found on the accusatory inscriptions.
In its decision, the investigating committee considered in particular that “the discovery of new fingerprints is not enough, on its own, to establish their relationship with the facts, these traces having been left before or after the murder”.
Without the possibility of dating the deposit of these genetic traces, their direct link with the crime cannot be established.
The investigating committee considered the same for the elements resulting from the gendarmerie investigation.
In a press release sent to AFP, the family of Ghislaine Marchal said “(take) note” of the rejection decision, which she “wishes” that she “puts a definitive end to a case painfully experienced by her”.
She also says her regrets “that this affair has been the subject of media agitation for thirty years, stirred up by some in search of notoriety”.
