Maître Randall Schwerdorffer was prosecuted for breach of professional secrecy.
Jonathann Daval's lawyer, who confessed to killing his wife Alexia in October 2017, was released Thursday by the Strasbourg court.
Maître Randall Schwerdorffer, Jonathann Daval's lawyer who confessed to killing his wife Alexia in October 2017, was released Thursday by the Strasbourg Criminal Court before which he appeared for breach of professional secrecy in this highly publicized criminal case.
This decision is in accordance with the requisitions of the public prosecutor, Gilles Bourdier, who had considered that, in his eyes, "there are no charges" in this case.
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"I hoped so, I did not really understand what I was being accused of", reacted at the end of the hearing Maître Schwerdorffer, one of the main penalists in eastern France, whose defense revolved around the "protection of the freedom of expression of the lawyer and, beyond my own, of the lawyers".
"I am very relieved and satisfied to have had a jurisdiction that goes in this direction," he added.
Breach of professional secrecy?
He was prosecuted by the public prosecutor of Besançon, Etienne Manteaux, for violation of professional secrecy for having disclosed on December 7, 2018 information to the mother of Jonathann Daval, on the sidelines of a series of hearings during which the computer scientist will confess again to the murder, after retracting for several months.
The scene took place near the coffee machine in the Salle des Pas Perdus of the Besançon Judicial Court, then invaded by journalists.
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In particular, Master Schwerdorffer was criticized for having told him that Jonathann had burst into tears when he had been shown a photo of Alexia and their cat Happy, brought the same day by Alexia's mother.
"If we can not say that, what is the place of the lawyer? So we can not say anything? I did not take an oath to be afraid and keep silent all the time!", Had launched the bisontin lawyer at the bar.
His three counsels, Masters Marylène Correia, Patrice Euvrard and Antoine Fittante, had requested the release of their client, arguing that the words referred to, which are part of a duty of "humanity", in no way hindered the instruction not more than they revealed secrets.