Jonathann Daval files defamation complaint against Alexia's family

Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credit: SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP 5:23 p.m., February 19, 2024

Jonathann Daval, who is serving a 25-year prison sentence for the murder of his wife Alexia, filed a defamation complaint against Alexia's mother and sister due to comments made in a television series on the case, a- we learned Monday from his lawyer, Me Randall Schwerdorffer. The incriminated comments were made in the fourth episode of the series “Alexia notre fille”, broadcast on Canal+.

Isabelle Fouillot, Alexia's mother, and Stéphanie Gay, her sister, present "an unprecedented version of the affair by unequivocally accusing Jonathann Daval of having deliberately poisoned his wife to cause the miscarriage that Alexia suffered Daval as well as having poisoned her to 'drive her crazy' and cause the discomfort for which the couple had consulted doctors including a neurologist", indicates the text of the complaint filed by Me Schwerdorffer with the public prosecutor of Vesoul, Arnaud Grécourt. However, these elements on a possible poisoning of Alexia Daval had been dismissed during the trial before the Haute-Saône Assize Court.

Jonathann Daval will appear on April 10 for slanderous denunciation against his ex-in-laws

"There is clearly a desire to present the Daval affair to the public from an inaccurate angle with a goal which can only be that of harming the complainant, as if his conviction for murder was not enough and that it was necessary publicly and falsely further burden Jonathann Daval and undermine his honor by making him appear to the public as a poisoner in addition to a murderer,” continues Me Schwerdorffer.

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Jonathann Daval must himself appear on April 10 before the Besançon criminal court for slanderous denunciation against his in-laws. The main complainant is Alexia Daval's brother-in-law, Grégory Gay, who was accused by Jonathann Daval of having murdered Alexia, as part of a family plot, during the investigation in 2018. Jonathann Daval finally admitted having lied, six months later.

Jonathann Daval strangled his 29-year-old wife on the night of October 27 to 28, 2017 at their home in Gray-la-Ville (Haute-Saône). The next day, he transported her body to a wood before setting it on fire and raising the alarm, claiming that his wife had not returned from her jogging. Alexia's body was found two days later. For three months, Jonathann Daval had shown the face of a grieving widower in the media, before being confused, in the midst of the #MeToo wave.