• Emmanuelle Badibanga, 32, was found on April 27, 2021 hanging from the towel hook in the bathroom at Club Med on the island of Sainte-Anne, where she was staying with Thomas Debatisse.

  • For the prosecution, it is a murder, punishable by life imprisonment.

    The 35-year-old street artist from Nice proclaims his innocence.

After more than two months of debate on the circumstances of the death of his companion, found lifeless in April 2021 in a hotel in the Seychelles, the murder trial of Niçois Thomas Debatisse is coming to an end in Victoria.

After the pleadings on Monday and Tuesday, the verdict is expected on Thursday, after a final reminder of the facts by the Supreme Court judge in the morning.

For the prosecution, which did not seek a sentence in accordance with Seychelles law, it is murder, punishable by life imprisonment.

The 35-year-old street artist, known by the nickname of Otom, proclaims his innocence and his defense is based on a French investigation favoring the hypothesis of a hanging and therefore of a suicide.

"Visual analyses" or "scientific analyses"

Emmanuelle Badibanga, 32, was found on April 27, 2021 hanging from the towel hook in their bathroom at Club Med on the island of Sainte-Anne, where they were staying.

An autopsy, carried out by a Cuban doctor posted to the Seychelles, concluded that he had been strangled.

Thomas Debatisse was arrested.

He has been incarcerated since May 5.

The pathologist "did not carry out scientific analyses, he only carried out visual analyzes", or "we must carry out scientific analyzes to get the truth", supported Bazil Hoareau, his Seychellois lawyer. , during his oral argument on Monday and Tuesday.

The defense relies for its part on a report filed on December 14 by the French courts.

A scarf in question

Two other experts, professors of medicine and forensic doctors, mandated by the Nice prosecutor's office, have re-examined the expert opinions carried out and affirm that "all the elements plead in favor of a hanging [...] and not of a strangulation".

Except that the Seychellois prosecutor Hemanth Kumar recalled on Friday that, although they concluded a hanging, these experts "declared [during the trial] that it was impossible that the victim hanged himself with the scarf found on Emmanuelle Badibanga ".

An observation shared by the medical examiner who visited the scene of the accident, who specified in his report that the victim had "been strangled from behind".

If convicted, Thomas Debatisse will have to serve his prison sentence in the Seychelles because there is no extradition agreement between France and the archipelago.

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