France reopens infamous heiress murder case after three decades

A Moroccan gardener convicted of murdering a French heiress 30 years ago has won his bid to reopen one of the country's most notorious criminal cases in an effort to finally clear his name following new DNA evidence.

Omar Raddad and lawyer Sylvie Noachovitch are hoping new DNA evidence will clear the Moroccan-born gardener's name once and for all. AFP - ALAIN JOCARD

Omar Raddad was sentenced to 18 years in jail in 1994 for killing his employer Ghislaine Marchal at her villa on the French Riviera. He has always claimed innocence.

At the scene of the stabbing in 1991, police found a message scrawled on a door in Marchal's blood that read "Omar killed me". Prosecutors seized on to secure Raddad's guilty verdict.

But the message contained a glaring grammatical mistake, using the infinitive verb ("Omar m'a tuer") instead of the past participle ("Omar m'a tuée") for "killed".

Defence lawyers argued it was highly unlikely that Marchal, a wealthy and educated widow, would make such a mistake, fuelling intense speculation that Raddad was framed.

Investigators examine the door with the message \\\"Omar m'a tuer\\\" (literally "Omar to kill me") in the courtroom in Nice, January 31, 1994. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard/Files

DNA evidence

Raddad was freed in 1998 after his sentence was partially commuted by former president Jacques Chirac. He lodged a new appeal last June seeking to reopen the case, in view of a potential retrial.

It was based on new evidence – a DNA report dating from 2019 that claims that fingerprints from four unknown people had been identified at the crime scene.

Using updated technology, an expert also found that some of this DNA was in a second incomplete message written in blood at the crime scene.

• New DNA could unlock one of France's most famous murder mysteries

"This ruling is a step towards a retrial," Raddad's lawyer Sylvie Nachovitch said of the decision by the court's investigative committee to reopen the inquiry.

"The battle is not over," she added.

The case has long captivated France because of its lurid details, but also because of claims that Raddad, an immigrant described as gentle and calm during his trial, was a victim of discrimination.

It is one of the best-known murder cases in France, and has become the subject of several books and a popular film.

(with AFP)