Seychelles: acquittal of a French street-art artist, tried for murder
Frenchman Thomas Debatisse (right) accompanied by his lawyer Bazil Hoareau, at the Courthouse in Victoria, April 14, 2022. AFP - RASSIN VANNIER
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
Detained for a year and a half, the artist Thomas Debatisse has been acquitted of the murder of his Franco-Congolese companion.
The jury of 5 men and 3 women clearly considered the evidence presented by the prosecution as insufficient, after a two-month trial, the longest the archipelago has ever known.
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The doubt of the jurors benefited the accused Thomas Debatisse.
By six votes to two, they felt that this 35-year-old artist from Nice, nicknamed "
Otom
", should not be sentenced for the murder of Emmanuelle Badibanga, his 32-year-old companion, found dead in their suite at Club Med on the island of Sainte-Anne, where they were staying on the evening of April 27, 2021.
"
It's the end of the humiliation
", loose Thomas Debatisse, after the announcement of the decision.
Incarcerated since May 5, 2021, he risked life in prison.
His lawyers and himself explained that the young woman was very troubled this evening of April 27, 2021 and that she had, to all appearances, committed suicide by hanging herself with a scarf from the towel rack in her bathroom.
However, the prosecution pointed to gray areas in the young man's schedule, his sometimes angry attitude with the young woman, and relied on the report of a first medical examiner considering that she was died by strangulation "
from behind
", not by hanging.
French experts to dispel doubts
But French experts and a Mauritian doctor, mandated by the defense, have formally denied several points of this report.
“
I had no doubt that it was an innocent man that was being judged.
For me, the Seychellois police must review their protocol
”, declares Maître Basil Hoareau, lawyer for Thomas Debatisse, while questioning the skills of the medical examiner who carried out the autopsy of the victim.
“
It was thanks to the help of French experts, who demonstrated that the pathologist from Seychelles had lied to the court and that he was incompetent, this is what allowed us to obtain the acquittal
”, says Maître Hoareau.
Thomas Debatisse had also benefited from the public support of personalities from Nice, his city of residence, in particular its mayor Christian Estrosi who said he was "
relieved
" by his acquittal "
after a year and a half of hardship
".
Emmanuelle Badibanga's family, on the other hand, did not comment after the verdict.
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