And if this testimony came to relaunch a case that justice has already decided twice? 4 years ago, on May 9, 2018, Blessing Mattew, a 21-year-old migrant from Nigeria, was found drowned in the Durance, in the Alps, on the Franco-Italian border, after a police check. Twice, the justice dismissed the case, the Grenoble Court of Appeal judging in February 2021 that there was no evidence to support the charges against the gendarmes.
>> “They are silent dead”: what happens to the migrants who perished while trying to pass through France?
On Monday May 30, 2022, an association for the aid of migrants, Tous migrants, as well as the sister of the migrant, demanded the reopening of the investigation in the light of an unpublished testimony questioning the version of the gendarmes. Officially, these did not see Blessing Matthew fall into the Durance this morning of May 7, 2018, when they were trying to arrest him.
Vincent Brengarth, the lawyer for Blessing’s sister, has made a new request for the opening of an investigation, based on new key testimony. “This new testimony is totally decisivehe explains. He is one of the exiled people who were present at the time of the events. This person confirms that the gendarmes saw Matthew Blessing and that there was a chase which led to his death.“
“This is new evidence that justice will have to take into consideration to reopen the case.”
Vincent Brengarthat franceinfo
This witness had never spoken for fear of being arrested. According to Sarah Bachelière, researcher for the Border Forensics association which investigates the death of exiles, her testimony is crucial because it contradicts the version of the gendarmes. She analyzed all the minutes. “There are eleven gendarmes who are questioned. These eleven gendarmes deliver versions of the facts which are not only contradictory to each other but which are also incompatible in time and space”, she believes. The researcher points, for example, to the inconsistencies of the gendarmes questioned on the time of the facts, on the precision of the story, some not mentioning the migrant while others yes.
“Instead of having noted these contradictions within the framework of a judicial police investigation, the conclusions of the investigation say that the testimony of the gendarmes converges, that they are precise and coherent, that there is no blurry“, she denounces.
“There is a selection of certain parts of certain stories to reconstruct a homogeneous version of the facts in which these contradictions are erased.”
Sarah Bachelière, researcher at Border Forensicsat franceinfo
According to Sarah Bachelière, who has compiled different databases, 87 migrants have died since 2015 crossing the Alps, 46 deaths have occurred at the Franco-Italian border.