This is the maximum penalty incurred. Advocate General Jacques Dallest requested, Thursday, February 17, life imprisonment, with a security period of 22 years, against Nordahl Lelandais. He is tried by the Assizes of Isère for having kidnapped and killed Maëlys de Araujo, 8, in August 2017, as well as for sexual assaults against two little cousins, 4 and 6 years old, during the same summer. “I will therefore ask you to declare Nordahl Lelandais a major criminal, a major predator, guilty of the charges”, claimed Jacques Dallest.
During his indictment, which lasted nearly two hours, the Advocate General returned to Nordahl Lelandais’ motivations when he kidnapped the girl. “Obviously the motive is sexual”, he launched, adding to have “the conviction that a sexual gesture has been imposed on Maëlys, touching or penetration”. “But I can’t demonstrate it, we can’t demonstrate it”, he specified. Thus, Nordahl Lelandais is not tried for rape in this case for lack of“material element”, because the girl’s body was found in a too degraded state, six months after her disappearance.
For the Advocate General, these three weeks of trial boil down to “confessions and mysteries”. He thus referred to this moment of the hearing, on February 11, when Nordahl Lelandais admitted having “voluntarily” killed Maëlys, while he was talking about a “accident” previously. “He realized that it was no longer possible to say that”underlined Jacques Dallest Thursday morning. “When we combine the intensity of the blows, their violence, their multiplicity, we are dealing with a characterized homicidal intent”he insisted.
But even though the defendant admitted “all of the facts with which he is charged”he “still have questions” on the circumstances of Maëlys’ death. “He would have worn Maëlys: there is no blood on his T-shirt. The shorts he threw: was there sperm on these shorts? The scratches what do they mean? Is it the brambles or is it Maëlys? listed Jacques Dallest. These questions will remain “without answer”notes the magistrate, who can only note that the girl, “child of happiness”, has been “at his mercy”. “Sexual excitement puts him in such a state that he feels superior to others, he has a predatory hold on his victims, whom he has dehumanized”analyzed the Advocate General.
“Permanent Liar”, “manipulator”Nordahl Lelandais is not “a serial killer”believes the Advocate General, who described the accused as “psychopath”of “failure of the life that made people talk about him”. Before requesting life imprisonment, he also spoke to the former dog handler who will be 39 on Friday.
“You are a destroyer of happiness, a destroyer of innocence, the slaughterer of a child.”
Jacques Dallest, General Counselduring his indictment
A man at the “double personality”, “emotionless”who still has the opportunity to speak one last time on Friday morning, before the deliberations.
This image, the lawyers of Nordahl Lelandais made every effort to break it, in their pleadings, Thursday afternoon. “His friends came to the bar: not one of them spoke of a monster”, insisted the first, Mathieu Moutous. But it is above all the 68-year-old lawyer from Lyon, Alain Jakubowicz, mute since the start of the trial, who tried to reintegrate him into the “the human community”. “It would have reassured us to know that he is a monster, that he is different from usdid he declare. Well no.” “The problem is that he looks like us”insisted, index finger raised, the advice of Nordahl Lelandais, who speaks of a “ordinary man”, “an eternal teenager”.
“Never, never will he be Klaus Barbie”capable launched the lawyer, while one of his colleagues from the opposing party mentioned the historic trial of the German war criminal in his argument. However, at the time of the trial, Alain Jakubowicz was on the side of the civil party. “You have touched the nerve”confesses the lawyer of Nordahl Lelandais. “So what happened? How did ‘Nono’ become ‘the other’?” asks Alain Jakubowicz. The lawyer often said it during the three weeks of hearing: he considers the year 2017 as a breaking point.
“He killed Corporal Noyer, but no one called him to account. Nordahl Lelandais had, at that time, a feeling of omnipotence, of impunity.”
Alain Jakubowicz, lawyer for Nordahl Lelandaisin his argument
From the death of Arthur Noyer to that of Maëlys de Aurajo: Alain Jakubowicz looks back on the night of August 27, 2017 during which Nordahl Lelandais kidnapped and then killed the girl, in the middle of a wedding, in Pont-de-Beauvoisin (Isère) . “He says, ‘I didn’t force her up, so I didn’t take her away.’ But if there is a kidnapping, I explained it to him. This little girl, Maëlys, had nothing to do in her car at 3 a.m. There is only one responsible, it is him “points the lawyer. And now, since its “confession” of February 11, Nordahl Lelandais knows it. “I know that everything has been said about his confession, extracted by his lawyer, that he went back on it… It’s false!”, hammers Alain Jakubowicz.
This lawsuit was not useless. Nordahl Lelandais has walked. He acknowledged the facts
Alain Jakubowicz, lawyer for Nordahl Lelandaisin his argument
“What I want you to realize is that this trial is a turning point. He has started to understand”argues the lawyer, for whom “These confessions are a small glimmer of hope on the road to redemption”. One “path that will be long and painful”. But the criminal lawyer wants to convince the Isère Assize Court that he will succeed: “He is determined to continue and intensify, in the prison environment, his psychological follow-up”, “has the project to pass the baccalaureate”. “Every man must keep a hope”, he insists. And so that the accused can still hope, Alain Jakubowicz asks a sentence of 30 years in prison rather than life imprisonment: “30 years locked up. He deserves it. And he knows it.” To convince the jurors, he concludes:
“Your decision does not have to echo public opinion but to respond to it by affirming the independence of French justice.”
Alain Jakubowicz, lawyer for Nordahl Lelandaisin his argument
The verdict is expected Friday afternoon.