PHOTO CAPTION: "The brutal murder of Lady Ghislaine Marchal and the sentencing of Moroccan gardener Omar Raddad have become one of the most mysterious murders in France and have stirred up many conspiracy theories."
GIST: Thirty years ago, France was shocked when wealthy widow Ghislaine Marchal, 65, was found dead in her private room at her villa in Cote d’Azur. The problem here is the mystery film-like nature of the case.
On June 23, 1991, Mrs. Marchal lived alone in a large La Chamade resort villa on Mougins hill. That day, she was going to have dinner at the Koster’s house.
At 11:48, Mrs. Marchal was on the phone with a friend who said he would visit her the next day. At 13:30, the Kosters, impatient, called Mrs. Marchal, but no one answered. The next day Mrs. Marchal’s body was discovered in the fireplace room in the basement. Ms. Marchal’s final hours provided the key details of the case. The medical examiner concluded that she died on June 23.
Coincidentally, the night before the murder, Moroccan gardener Omar Raddad changed his work schedule. On June 23, he went to work for his neighbor Marchal. This change is known only to Mr. Raddad and Mrs. Marchal.
At the scene, the only door was locked from the outside, meaning the killer escaped after shooting. However, the door inside was also locked. The question is who locked the door from the inside? Victim or perpetrator? If so, how did the perpetrator escape? Even more controversial are the two lines scrawled in the victim’s own blood on the door denouncing the crime of the Moroccan gardener: “Omar m’a tuer” (Omar killed me), causing Investigators believe the main culprit is Raddad. On another door is the second message: “Omar m’a t”.
Investigators scrutinized the accusation written in the victim’s blood on the door of the room (Image: NYT).
Both messages were written in the victim’s blood. For years, experts debated whether this was written by the victim. All the entanglements, speculations and controversies also start from that clue.
The inscription written on the door reads “Omar m’a tuer”, instead of “m’a tuée” as is correct.
This detail raises the question: did a wealthy lady really make such a typo, or was the gardener merely the victim of another murder and quickly found guilty? for being an Arab immigrant?
If the gardener was wronged, it is difficult to understand why the perpetrator knew of this man’s changing work schedule so that he could commit the murder and then set up a scene to blame him. Meanwhile, Mr. Raddad’s alibi that he had gone home for dinner was not acknowledged by witnesses.
According to investigative experts, the crime scene showed that the victim may have been dying for at least 15-30 minutes. That time was enough for her to write two lines of condemnation. She then blocked the door of the room with a bed and an iron bar to prevent the killer from returning. Experts say that pulling the bed to block the door cannot be done from the outside and then no one can leave the room. This argument rules out the staging hypothesis and proves that Ghislaine was alone when she wrote the last two lines.
Lawyers for the victim’s family said that “although the examiners confirmed that the writer could not be identified, they did not rule out the possibility that the writer was Mrs. Marchal”. “In favor of Omar Raddad, there are no new factors that are convincing enough. But against Omar, there are many incriminating factors. Therefore, I ask the court to dismiss the application for reconsideration of the sentence.” lawyer said.
Controversial circumstances:
Mrs. Marchal came from a poor family in rural France, but her husband was a wealthy gentleman. After her husband died, she inherited all of her property and was very rich. Meanwhile, Mr. Raddad, born and raised in Morocco, is illiterate and barely speaks French.
The crime scene is clearly not on Mr. Raddad’s side. The victim’s lawyer and family allege the gardener, who was addicted to gambling, killed the victim out of anger when Ms. Marchal refused to advance his salary. According to them, after Raddad escaped from the basement and locked the door, Mrs. Marchal was still alive and denounced him with notes written on the doors. They believe the victim locked the door inside out of fear that Mr. Raddad would return.
But Mr. Raddad has always insisted that he is innocent and has no motive to kill Ms. Marchal – who has always been very nice to him. He declared in court that he was “ready to die for the truth”. He also recalled that he had been on a hunger strike for 45 days and attempted to commit suicide by swallowing a razor. “I swear seven times that I didn’t kill Ghislaine,” Raddad said.
Proponents of the gardener argue that the real killer may have written such a note to blame the gardener and then escaped.
The victim was a rich and influential person in society. The suspect is a poor immigrant. A message written in blood denouncing the crimes of the perpetrator. But so far, the case has been controversial throughout France because a spelling error in the blood accusation led many to suspect that the victim had been falsely accused.
The most notable detail is that no traces of Mr. Raddad’s DNA and fingerprints were found at the crime scene. In 2015, using completely new DNA testing technology, investigators discovered traces of four unidentified men at the crime scene.
Later, experts discovered 35 DNA traces from a man that matched a second message believed to be composed of the victim’s blood. Mr. Raddad’s legal representative, Noachovich He, stated that “this DNA is definitely from the killer”, and insisted it was not the DNA of investigators or others who arrived at the scene later. Another lawyer also said that it was evidence that Mr. Raddad was innocent and that there was a third person present at the scene.
However, there is still nothing to prove that it is the culprit. Suspicious DNA traces may have appeared there before or after the murder. The victim’s granddaughter and the family’s legal representative, Sabine du Granrut, also adamantly said that the DNA findings were due to the fact that the scene was not handled with care and that the DNA said nothing at all.
For Mr. Raddad’s supporters, the misspelling was proof that the message was not written by Ms. Marchal, but by someone wanting to blame the gardener. In response, du Granrut said that his aunt often made such typos.
The problem here is not the theory of a murder or robbery case or personal vendetta, but rather the secret of the locked door and the final message written in the victim’s blood that is wrong. describe.
“Nowadays, when asked to give an example of a wrongful conviction, people immediately mention Omar Raddad,” said lawyer Henri Leclerc, who represented the victim’s family in a 1994 trial. , speak.
Waiting for the new trial:
Mr. Raddad was released from prison in 1998 after being pardoned by former French President Jacques Chirac (Image: Getty).
Shortly after Mr Raddad was found guilty in 1994, his legal representative said the gardener’s only “crime” was: he was an Arab immigrant.
Sentencing was handed down to the gardener Omar Raddad in 1994, but things have not ended because of the gloom surrounding the incident. The media is constantly jumping in with articles that attract public opinion. Many intellectuals and even the king of Morocco defended the gardener, while Mr. Raddad always complained.
After Moroccan King Hassan II intervened and then-French President Jacques Chirac pardoned him, Radad was released after four years. But he never got away with murder because the sentence was still there. In September 1998, Omar was released from prison after being held for seven years. In January 1999, he filed a petition to have the case reviewed in the hope of having his honor restored.
On October 17, 2002, the Court opened a trial to consider Mr. Raddad’s appeal. On November 20, 2002, the Court decided that the factors presented by the defense were not enough grounds to review the crimes of Omar Raddad. Therefore, the case file will be closed forever.
However, so far, all the controversy has not stopped. Mr. Raddad, 59, is still waiting for the court to consider approving the reopening of the next trial in June 2022.
Meanwhile, the victim’s family still thinks Mr. Raddad is guilty and opposes reopening a new trial.
Thanh Thanh
Theo New York Times, France24
The entire story can be read at:
