- This Monday opened the appeal trial of the Pastor case, named after the Monegasque billionaire murdered in 2014.
- But, suddenly, Wojciech Janowksi, the main defendant, son-in-law of the billionaire and sentenced to life imprisonment at first instance, posed a rabbit at the assize court, because of his state of health.
- The catch? The medical expert reports affirm that he simulates being sick and the court asks him to kindly appear at the bar.
At first glance, there is the strange feeling that the same scenes replay, years later. The cast of this incredible affair is almost the same. On the bench for civil parties, Sylvia Pastor, longer hair and drawn features. Her brother Guildo, in front of her, wears the Monaco badge on the chest. Opposite, in the accused's box, Pascal Dauriac, the former family coach, is there too, his face chiselled by the years of detention, and his eyes half closed. Almost everyone is there, lawyers, defendants, civil parties, in the same room where, in 2018, the Assize Court of Aix-en-Provence had been considering for weeks on the murder of the Monegasque billionaire Hélène Pastor and her driver, in 2014.
Everyone is there ... or almost. A famous actor from the previous trial is missing: Eric Dupond-Moretti, lawyer at first instance for the main accused, Wojciech Janowski, the victim's son-in-law, riddled with debts at the time of the events. During the first trial, the famous lawyer had confessed to the crime in place of his client who, furious, had finally filed a complaint against him, appealed against his life sentence ... and changed the lawyer, opting for his defense for Jean- Jacques Campana, known in particular for providing advice to Gérald Campanella, presumed figure of organized crime in Corsica.
Whiplash
This Monday was to open a new chapter, that of the trial on appeal in this extraordinary case. But when the curtain rises, a flutter seizes the small room of the court of appeal. Blow of drama: the main accused posed a rabbit at the court. According to statements by his lawyer, Wojciech Janowski presents a worrying state of health which justifies his absence at the helm.
“The court notes that Mr. Janowski is not present, annoys the president of the court, Jean-Luc Tournier. It's a long story, Mr. Janowski… The defense of Mr. Janowski informed me a month and a half ago after he had a suspected recurrence of colorectal cancer, because we had found blood in his stool. I therefore commissioned an expert report from Mr. Janowski. There was an initial examination by Mr. Janwoski which demonstrated that there had been no previous colorectal cancer and that the next colonoscopy should normally be done in 2022. ”
A "theatrical attitude"
Shortly afterwards, Wojciech Janowski's lawyer informed the court that the latter "would be hospitalized following a stroke which he allegedly suffered and that he was in a hemiplegia state. The catch? At the end of a new complementary clinical examination, "it follows that there has never been a stroke, that it is not hemiplegic and that there is either a pathomimia, that is ie the act of mimicking a pathology consciously or unconsciously, either a hysterical episode, or a simulation. But in any event, there is no problematic infection and he could very well appear for four weeks before the Assize Court of Aix-en-Provence… ”
Psychological expertise also reveals a "theatrical attitude" which could explain this behavior. "This may also be a form of defense," accuses Advocate General Pierre Cortés. We want to prevent our own lawyer from defending. This possible defense strategy is clearly that of Wojciech Janowski. When a new doctor is dispatched at the end of last week to examine Wojciech Janowski, the latter "refuses to be examined" because "he did not agree with the conclusions of the previous one".
"It is a notorious vegetable"
In the afternoon, a bailiff is urgently dispatched to the North Hospital where Janowski is taken care of to ask him to report immediately to the bar. Hélène Pastor's son-in-law refuses, still because of his state of health. "If you see it, it's a notorious vegetable," says Campana to a few journalists. It is said that there was no colorectal cancer. I say very well. But how to explain that in his cell, it's all red on the ground when the firefighters took charge of him a few days ago? I am not a doctor. As for hemiplegia, I poked him to see, and he doesn't react. "
And to add: "The North Hospital keeps him. If it was bogus, he would tell her to go back to jail. But the most important is not even so much the state of Janowski's health (as) the rights of defense. He has the right to explain himself and today, this is not possible. The lawyer asked that the trial be postponed, on the grounds that he had been unable to speak to his client for the past few days.
A request dismissed en masse by the court, which however accepts another request, in yet another twist: that of disjoining the case of the shooter in this case. The latter is in fact represented by Me Berton, unable to appear at the trial since he defends at the same time in Pas-de-Calais a certain Redoine Faïd. As for Wojciech Janowski, Hélène Pastor's son-in-law was the subject of a new medical examination, the conclusions of which will be known on Tuesday, and a bailiff will appear again in the morning at the Nord hospital to invite him to go to his trial, without forcing him to do so. To be continued in the next episode…
Justice
Pastor Trial: Wojciech Janowski's Release Request Denied
Justice
Pastor trial: Sentenced, Wojciech Janowski files a complaint against his lawyer Eric Dupond-Moretti
- Nice
- Marseilles
- Monaco
- Trial
- Sickness