Tears and distress among those close to the accused. Thomas Hiblot has just been sentenced, this Friday, June 14, to ten years of criminal imprisonment by the Assize Court of Haute-Corse for the murder of his brother, Mathieu, with a harpoon shot, on September 16, 2022 in a campsite run by his family in Lucciana. The jurors did not accept self-defense.
The sound recordings of the calls made by the Hiblot family for help on the day of the events set the tone for this closing day of the trial. The cries and tears, against the backdrop of cries for help, break through the coldness of the courtroom: “He was hit with a harpoon, it was an accident” shouts, in particular, Mathieu Hiblot’s partner to the firefighters.
It’s difficult to remain indifferent to these telephone communications. Present on the day of the events, the victim’s children, absent at the hearing, made their voices heard differently, through Me Cynthia Costa-Sigrist, lawyer for the ad hoc administrator of the two minors: “We told them: ”Uncle shot daddy”. They will need to understand. They were three and six years old at the time of their father’s disappearance. Thomas Hiblot sincerely regrets, but the children have lost their father forever.”
“He could have shot him in the legs.”
Me Linda Piperi, counsel for the rest of the family, civil party, insists on their positioning, rare in this type of case: “They are not standing up against the author but only want truth and sincerity. Thomas did not want to kill his brother. Returning Thomas to them is doing justice to Thomas and Mathieu.”
Against all odds, Kim Biardeau, the attorney general, brushes aside self-defense and defends homicidal intent to justify 12 years of criminal imprisonment in his requisitions: “I don’t think that Thomas Hiblot is lying. Just like those close to him. At that moment we are touching on psychological factors. It is impossible to admit to having had the will to kill his brother. To admit it is to risk psychological breakdown.”
To demonstrate the intention to kill, she develops several elements: “Before the shooting, Thomas Hiblot intended to use the harpoon. He had removed the safety, he voluntarily fired in the direction of the chest while raising his weapon, in the immediate vicinity of his brother. He could have used another weapon .He could have just flashed that gun. He could have shot him in the legs.”
“It’s a defensive shot”
During her first oral argument, Me Laureva Bernardi, counsel for the accused, speaks of reclassification and self-defense: “Homicidal intent was never demonstrated by the investigation. Thomas could legitimately think that Mathieu was armed with a knife that evening. It was an unfortunate, uncontrolled, unforeseen gesture, regretted and which repugns him. “
Me Emmanuel Maestrini, the other defense lawyer, drives the point home: “The only question is the legitimacy of Thomas’ perception of things. He is not a murderer. We cannot separate the fatal scene from the episodes of violence which preceded it, nor from Mathieu’s personality . It’s a defensive shot. When there is a doubt, we acquit.”
The jurors finally swept away this doubt.
