Designated by the inscription “Omar killed me” written in letters of blood by the victim, Ghislain Marchal, rich widow of an industrialist from Mougins, in the Var, the gardener has always proclaimed his innocence.
The investigative committee of the Court of Cassation decided, this Thursday, December 16, 2021, to reopen the judicial file of Omar Raddad. A first step towards a possible revision of the trial, according to his lawyer, Sylvie Noachovitch.
The case dates back to June 24, 1991 when Ghislaine Marchal, 65, was found dead in the back of her cellar, on her property in Mougins, in the Var. She was stabbed to death. But before dying, Ghislaine Marchal had had time to write a few words with her own blood “Omar killed me”.
A strange spelling mistake
Omar was his gardener. The investigation is obviously oriented towards this young father, of Moroccan origin, who has one nasty flaw: he plays horse races. And, from time to time, he asks his boss for money to make ends meet.
What is intriguing, however, is the spelling mistake. In love with the French language, Ghislaine Marchal made no spelling mistakes. She was passionate about crosswords. But above all, a person still alive [même si elle est agonisante] does not write that she is already dead.
The investigation was wrapped up a bit quickly. Omar Raddad was presented to judge Jean-Paul Renard, indicted as they were called then and imprisoned.
But he has always denied being the perpetrator of this murder.
DNA traces on the seals
The case hit the headlines for years. Three years later, the gardener was sentenced to 18 years of criminal imprisonment. But no one is happy with this decision.
In 1996, the King of Morocco was moved by the situation of this gardener and obtained from Jacques Chirac, then President of the Republic, a partial pardon. Omar Raddad was released on September 4, 1998. But he called for a new trial.
In 2002, the revision commission ordered new investigations. But ultimately, she will refuse a new trial.
However, new DNA tests are carried out on two doors and a chevron on which the victim’s blood was found. Experts express serious doubts about the identity of the author of the inscription. Especially since traces belonging to four different men are identified on the seals. None of them belong to Omar Raddad.
At the time of the murder
But it is a 2019 expertise that could be a game-changer. Indeed, an expert noted 35 traces of one and the same male DNA on one of the two inscriptions “Omar me t”. And it is not that of the gardener. Small crucial clarification, these genetic fingerprints would have been deposited at the time of the murder and not, as was initially believed, during a “contamination” after the fact.
This is enough to throw trouble on the accusation, a little quick, of the Moroccan gardener. A review trial will, perhaps, clear Omar Raddad.
The Omar Raddad case revived by science
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