Jean-Luc Boujon 1:58 p.m., February 11, 2022
The tenth day of the trial of Nordahl Lelandais gave rise this Friday to a tense pass of arms between the lawyer for the accused and the former prosecutor in charge of the investigation at the time of the disappearance of little Maëlys.
This day also represents the last chance audition for the former dog handler.
The tenth day of Nordahl Lelandais' trial gave rise on Friday to a tense fight between the defendant's lawyer and the former prosecutor in charge of the investigation at the time of the disappearance of little Maëlys.
Jean-Yves Coquillat was public prosecutor in Grenoble when Maëlys De Araujo disappeared during a wedding in Pont-de-Beauvoisin (Isère) in August 2017. He very quickly came to suspect Nordahl Lelandais who, at the time, categorically denies.
The former prosecutor, now retired and with "entirely free speech", strongly criticized the "defense system" of the former soldier.
>> Find Europe midi in replay and podcast here
Lively exchange between the defense and the former prosecutor
The magistrate with very free speech did not hesitate to use it this Friday morning by questioning the lawyer of Nordahl Lelandais, Mr. Alain Jakubowicz, whose behavior and strategy he criticized since the start of the affair, in particular his media interventions to challenge certain advances in the investigation.
Reproaches which provoked the indignation of the lawyer, who, in a rather theatrical way, got up and asked for a suspension of the hearing, before denouncing an intolerable attack on the very principle of the defense.
The incident lasted several minutes but everything was finally back to normal and the former prosecutor was then able to tell how he had led the investigation step by step, how he had made it almost a personal affair.
He also expressed his absolute certainty that Nordahl Lelandais, a proven pedophile, had raped little Maëlys before killing her, but he regretted not having been able to prove it, for lack of material elements.
Do the families still have hope that he is telling the truth?
Everything now rests on Nordahl Lelandais.
Only he can decide to tell everything that happened that night.
Only the victim's family doesn't believe it.
The former handler had many opportunities to do so, opportunities he never took.
He seems perfectly organized to conceal the truth.
READ ALSO
- Maëlys trial: cocaine and fishing gear, Lelandais' attitude to marriage questioned
Despite everything, Maëlys' father's lawyer, Mr. Laurent Boguet, will try to get him to talk.
"It's obviously sooner or never. He promised us revelations and in the absence of revelations, moments of truth. I am very impatient and I claim on behalf of the members of his family the right to question one more silent murderer", he assured the microphone of Europe 1. The last chance audition for Nordahl Lelandais starts this Friday from 2 p.m.