Nordahl Lelandais saw two appeals dismissed by the Court of Cassation on Wednesday. This decision opens the possibility of prosecuting the alleged murderer of Maëlys de Araujo in 2017 for rape. The 37-year-old former dog handler is currently under investigation for the murder of the eight-year-old girl in late August 2017 during a marriage in Pont-de-Beauvoisin (Isère), as well as for sexual assaults committed on two grand cousins a few weeks earlier, aged four and six at the time of the events.
In September 2019, the Grenoble prosecutor's office had taken additional requisitions after having been informed by the prison administration of confidences that a fellow inmate from Nordahl Lelandais allegedly collected, to whom he allegedly said that he had raped the young girl.
The testimony of a fellow prisoner in question
The following month, the investigative chamber of the Grenoble Court of Appeal closed that door in a decision that the public prosecutor's office challenged in cassation. For its part, the Lelandais defense refuted the presence in the file of the testimony of the co-detainee from the Saint-Quentin-Fallavier prison (Isère). These two appeals have been joined.
In its judgment, the Court of Cassation considers on the one hand that the additional indictment of the parquet floor was made in the rules, by rejecting on the other hand the request of Lelandais. "This will allow the examining magistrates to reconvene Nordahl Lelandais, to hear him again and, if they consider that the charges are sufficient, to put him on trial for rape," said the Grenoble prosecutor's office.
No cancellation of the psychological expert report
In a second judgment, the Court of Cassation rejected the request to annul the psychological expert report, made at the end of 2018, which the defendant's lawyer requested on behalf of a “lack of impartiality and a attack on the presumption of innocence ”.
This expertise has been validated, in its version redacted from a few passages by the investigating chamber, and will be subject to contradictory debate.
"A stinging disavowal for defense"
Fabien Rajon, the lawyer for Maëlys' parents, said he was "very satisfied" with these decisions, in which he saw "a scathing disavowal for the defense which tried to allege procedural questions to obscure the substance of the case and all of the overwhelming elements of Nordahl Lelandais ”. "We are moving towards [his] indictment for the rape of Maëlys de Araujo, in accordance with our requests," he concluded.
The accused's lawyer, Alain Jakubowicz, declined to comment.
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- Grenoble
- Nordahl Lelandais
- Rape
- Murder
- Maëlys case
- Justice