Found guilty of complicity in assassinations and fraud in the death of a couple of French restaurateurs in Guatemala in December 1991, Thierry Ascione remained on the run from 2000 to 2021.
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Former fugitive Thierry Ascione was sentenced on Friday October 11 to eighteen years in prison by the Paris Assize Court for complicity in murder and fraud for acts committed more than thirty years ago in Guatemala . Sentenced in his absence to life imprisonment in June 2001 for complicity in the assassination of a couple of French restaurateurs in Guatemala in December 1991, Thierry Ascione remained on the run from 2000 to 2021.
The court went beyond the requisitions of the prosecution, which had requested a sentence of fifteen years of imprisonment against the 65-year-old ex-fugitive. According to the court, Thierry Ascione “took an active part” in the preparation of the assassination of Bernard Béréaud and Marie-Antoinette Perriard, owners of two renowned restaurants in the capital of Guatemala on the night of December 27 to 28, 1991.
The accused has always denied having been involved in this crime which he attributes to revenge by drug traffickers. During the hearing, however, he admitted to having cashed, a few days after the double homicide, a check for $80,000 on an account of Bernard Béréaud in a Miami bank.
Arrested for the first time in Thailand in May 1995 while in possession of an American passport stolen from a tourist in Vietnam, he was extradited to France in September 1995 where he was indicted and imprisoned. After nearly five years in pre-trial detention, he took advantage of his release while awaiting his trial to go on the run. He was arrested by chance in Indonesia in October 2021 after damage to his sailboat.