Will Omar Raddad get a new trial? After the request for revision of the former Moroccan gardener, convicted in 1994 for the murder three years earlier of his employer, Ghislaine Marchal, the justice ordered new acts of investigation as part of further information, learned franceinfo from Sylvie Noachovitch, lawyer for Omar Raddad, Thursday, December 16.
This judicial decision marks a first step towards a possible review of the trial. Omar Raddad, incriminated by the inscription “Omar killed me” at the scene of the murder, has been claiming his innocence for three decades. Sentenced in 1994 to eighteen years’ imprisonment without the possibility of appealing, the former employee of Ghislaine Marchal had benefited from a partial pardon from Jacques Chirac, then from parole in 1998. A request for a review of his trial was, however, rejected in 2002.
“Omar Raddad is very happy, he regains confidence in justice. It is a real hope.”
Sylvie Noachovitch, lawyer for Omar Raddadto franceinfo
“We are at ease insofar as we provide evidence questioning the guilt of Omar Raddad”, assured the lawyer of the former gardener Thursday. What are the elements that made it possible to relaunch this investigation, twenty-seven years after the conviction of the respondent?
Sylvie Noachovitch explains having presented the conclusions of an expert’s report to the courts, which again analyzed a discovery dating from 2015. Several samples from the seals have revealed traces of DNA. “exploitable”, not matching Omar Raddad’s genetic profile. Four DNA prints corresponding to four different men were found on two doors and a chevron at the crime scene. Two of them were perfectly usable, the other two partially.
“Justice needed a new fact for the review and this new fact is the discovery of these traces of DNA on the cellar door.”
Jean-Marie Rouart, writer and one of the first supporters of Omar Raddadon franceinfo
The famous inscriptions “Omar killed me” as well as “Omar t”, written in the victim’s blood, were displayed on these same doors. These traces of DNA discovered in 2015 were then compared to the profiles of the entourage of people who worked for Ghislane Marchal, including Omar Raddad. Without success, just like the comparison with a genetic fingerprint recorded in the national file.
In notes from 2019 and 2020, the genetics expert noted the presence of 35 traces of an unknown male DNA on the inscription “Omar me t”. He concluded in favor of the hypothesis of the deposit of these fingerprints at the time of the facts, and not of a “pollution” later, potentially by investigators. The investigating committee of the Court of Revision has requested additional investigations on this point. For the defense, it is possible that these traces were left by the author of the inscription, potentially the murderer, who would have sought to designate a scapegoat.
The first request for revision already advanced genetic expertise having identified a male DNA different from that of the gardener, but in “very low proportion”. Justice had rejected this request, considering that it was “impossible to determine when, before, concomitant or after the murder, these traces were left”.
This new request took place in a different context, that of a relaxation of the criteria for obtaining the review of a trial. As explained on the vie-publique.fr website, the law of June 20, 2014 provides “the possibility of revising a final criminal conviction, when a new fact or an element unknown to the jurisdiction on the day of the trial is of a nature ‘to give rise to the slightest doubt about his guilt'”. The simple notion of doubt, and no longer of serious doubt on guilt, had already been permitted by a law of 1989, but this provision was until 2014 little taken into account by the magistrates, according to Release. The new law came to remind her.
The text also triggered the creation of a Court of Revision and Reconsideration, which came to merge the Commission for the Review of Criminal Sentences, the Court of Revision and the Commission for Reconsideration, according to vie-publique.fr. One way to avoid contradictory decisions between the different bodies, underlined in 2014 Release. It also allows, for seven years, to keep the seals for five years and no longer for six months, specifies the newspaper.
The DNA traces discovered and this legislation facilitating the requests will they allow a review of the trial and conviction of Omar Raddad? This remedy rarely succeeds in France: in 75 years, only about ten accused were able to obtain a review and an acquittal during their lifetime.