For the seventh time, this Wednesday, the defense committee of Mis and Thiennot will try to have their innocence recognized with the filing of a new request for revision of their trial. Raymond Mis and Gabriel Thiennot were sentenced to hard labor for the murder of a game warden in Brenne after the Second World War. After confessions made in police custody, they continued to proclaim their innocence until their death in the 2000s.
Committee lawyer Jean-Pierre Mignard has good hopes of winning his case this time, thanks to a change in legislation. He explained it this morning, live on France Bleu Berry: “From now on, the Court of Revision is competent to proceed with the annulment of the documents in the file relating to statements which it appears that they were taken as a result of violence exerted by the investigators.“. If the file is indeed transmitted to the court of revision, the lawsuits against Mis and Thiennot will be considered null and the lawsuit, in fact, canceled.
The two Berrichons benefited from a presidential pardon in the 1950s, but recognition of their innocence is essential, believes Me Mignard: “for the memory of these men, for their descendants and for the support committee which has been carrying out a titanic work for years so that the truth is known. This would mean that in France, any act of torture resulting in a confession renders them null and void and that the perpetrators of this violence are torturers who can be prosecuted as such. This would be a strong commitment by France against torture“.