"It's really the last chance for Omar Raddad," said his lawyer, Me Sylvie Noachovitch.
The defense of the former gardener convicted 25 years ago for the murder of Ghislaine Marchal presented this Thursday, during a closed-door hearing, new elements in favor of his request for review.
A new stage is scheduled for September 15.
The commission of instruction of the Court of Revision will then have to decide whether it judges the request inadmissible or whether it seizes the Court, which will have the last word on the organization of a new trial, an extremely rare event in France.
A first request for review filed by Omar Raddad was rejected in 2002.
Omar Raddad was convicted in 1994 of murdering the wealthy widow of an automotive supplier.
The latter was found on June 23, 1991 bathed in her blood, in the cellar of her property in Mougins (Alpes-Maritimes).
Incriminated by the inscription "Omar killed me", the ex-gardener has always claimed his innocence.
He had received a partial pardon in 1996, which does not cancel his conviction.
DNA traces in question
In one of the most famous French criminal cases, the investigating committee of the Court of Revision had ordered additional information on December 16.
In particular, she wanted to analyze the conclusions of a genetic expert who studied four DNA fingerprints found on two doors and a chevron of the crime scene, and which do not correspond to the genetic profile of the ex-gardener.
It was on these two doors that the inscriptions "Omar killed me", emblematic of this affair, and "Omar killed me", were written with the blood of the victim.
In notes from 2019 and 2020, the genetics expert had noted the presence of 35 traces of an unknown male DNA on the inscription "Omar m'a t" and concluded in favor of the hypothesis of a deposit of these fingerprints at the time of the facts and not of a later "pollution".
On Thursday, Omar Raddad's defense presented new arguments justifying, in its view, a referral to the Court of Revision.
His lawyer indicated that he had notably presented elements from a "secret investigation" by the gendarmerie between 2002 and 2004, revealed in a book published in March, "Ministry of injustice" by Jean-Michel Décugis, Pauline Guéna and Marc The dive.
“The investigators who made this file will be heard” before September 15, assured Me Noachovitch to the press.
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Omar Raddad case: Thirty years after the murder of Ghislaine Marchal, the former gardener's last hope of being cleared
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