"Naive and suggestible" or "manipulator"? The first day of the trial of Claude Chossat, self-proclaimed "repentant" and ex-henchman of Francis Mariani in the Corsican gang of the Sea Brise, speakers have painted two contradictory portraits of the accused Monday in Aix-en-Provence .
The debates began with a touch of humor, the president of the Assize Court of Bouches-du-Rhone, Jean-Luc Tournier, highlighting the "epidemic" of medical certificates found "currently in Corsica". A reference to multiple "medical reasons" absences among the 29 prosecution witnesses. Then began the analysis of the accused's personality.
"Francis Mariani is obviously the hero that his father was not"
"In search of an identificatory model", Claude Chossat would be attached to Francis Mariani as a father, explains Elisabeth Roux, psychologist, duplex-video from Bastia: "Sir Francis Mariani is obviously the hero that his father does was not ". "Claude Chossat needed an object of love to be fixed, until the physical contact," adds Michel Delaburte, another psychologist, at the helm, decrypting the relationship between Francis Mariani and his driver in the gang.
On the bench, Claude Chossat, 42, shirt and black jacket, fine glasses and carefully trimmed beard, does not react. Accused of organized assassination and criminal conspiracy, it is alleged that he shot down at the car park of a Volkswagen dealership in Portofolio, Richard Casanova, aka "Charles" or "the liar", on April 23, 2008. Vecchio (Southern Corsica).
If his DNA was found on the shooting range used for the murder, Claude Chossat has always denied being the killer. Francis Mariani shot, he always accused. Founders of the Sea Breeze in the 1970s, Casanova and Mariani went from friendship to hatred. Francis Mariani even suspected that Casanova had attempted to assassinate him. But Francis Mariani is no longer here to answer. He lost his life in January 2009 in the explosion of the hangar where he was, on the run.
Civil parties denounce "a manipulator"
On the side of civil parties, the family of the victim is present Monday afternoon at the opening of the trial: François Casanova, 89, his father, Nicole, his sister, and Sandra Germani, his ex-concubine. And their lawyers refuse this portrait of Chossat, that of a weak man, relegated to the subaltern tasks. Rereading some passage in the report of Elisabeth Roux, Mr. Pierre Bruno emphasizes that if the accused presented himself "as someone naive, impressionable", he also had "an intellectual level above the average", having the "wisdom not to flaunt": "I call that a manipulator," asserts the lawyer. "He said he was kidnapped, that he was tried to kill him, he has been free for years and nothing has happened to him," he also told the European microphone. "All he wants is to influence the jurors," he said, "it's big no matter what."
For the civil parties, the goal is displayed: erase the image of "repentant" that Claude Chossat claims since his arrest in 2009. "This status of repentant, we are not entitled to it when we are involved in blood murders. Here Claude Chossat is accused ", thundered Mr. Bruno before the opening of the debates, in front of the cameras and microphones of the journalists. This status, "it will have to evolve if we want to end the omerta," retorts just a few meters Me Edouard Martial, defender Claude Chossat. "To send him to prison would be to send him to death," said Sandrine Chossat, the accused's wife, claiming to live in constant fear, with "always a bag ready to leave".