two months of an “extraordinary” hearing

JUSTICE – Few would have bet on the deadline being maintained. However, the verdict in the trial of the double murder at Bastia-Poretta airport in 2017 must be delivered this Friday, June 28, before the Aix-en-Provence Assize Court. The outcome of nearly two months of a chaotic hearing where the question of an adjournment has continued to agitate the debates. To the point that the second half took place in the absence of the main accused, who refused to attend, and their lawyers, whom they challenged.

The trial, which began on May 6, is that of the case on which the film is inspired Borgo, released in mid-April at the cinema: the assassination of two figures of Corsican organized crime on December 5, 2017, in broad daylight, in the parking lot of Bastia airport. In the background, a project which seems to have been dictated by the desire of the three main accused to avenge the death of their fathers, founders of the Sea Breeze gang, and the intriguing role of a prison guard suspected of having designated one of the two victims to the shooter, giving him a kiss at the airport.

All four tried to tell their stories, in turn, in the first days of this long trial where life imprisonment is incurred. But the hearing schedule was quickly impacted by current events: on May 14, the deadly attack in Incarville provoked a movement to block the prisons. The trial, already interrupted because of the May 8 and Ascension bridge, is suspended, as detained defendants can no longer be transported by the prison services.

Lawyers take advantage of a recess to leave the courtroom

It resumes on May 21, after only three actual days of hearing. In the meantime, the lawyers have received a new schedule of proceedings. And this postpones the hearings of the investigators until June 10, whereas they were scheduled at the beginning of the examination of the merits of the case, as is usually the case. The court assures that it is not possible to hear the police officers earlier because they are on leave before the Olympic Games. The counsels then demand that these hearings be brought forward, otherwise they will request that the trial be adjourned.

“The practice is that investigators are heard at the beginning of the hearing”explains Me Jean-Charles Vincensini, one of Richard Guazzelli’s lawyers, presented as ” the chauffeur “ of the shooter. “Firstly because, to the jurors, they tell the general story, they set the scene. (…) Procedurally, then, at the assizes we cannot question a witness on the basis of statements made by another witness, even a police officer, whose hearing is scheduled later”he justifies to Corsica-Morning.

But the court refuses their request. Tensions rise again when eleven of the fourteen accused announce that they are disqualifying their lawyers, a way of forcing the adjournment. The black robes take advantage of a suspension of the hearing to leave the room and thus avoid that the president Jean-Yves Martorano, in order to force them to stay, commits them ex officio, as he has the power to do.

Are we in Aix-en-Provence, in France, or in Gabon, in a court in Libreville?
Ange-Marie Michelosi, one of the accused

Other lawyers are therefore appointed. But they in turn requested the postponement, as soon as the hearing resumed on the morning of May 23. “It is impossible to read this file with 20,571 ratings (document from a legal file, editor’s note) within 24 hours for defendants who face extremely harsh sentences”they plead. One of the accused, Ange-Marie Michelosi, comes to support: “It’s been seven years since we last said a word and everyone was there. A president has the choice to give a good image of justice. Are we in Aix-en-Provence, in France, or in Gabon, in a court in Libreville? »

New refusal from the court. “The accused voluntarily put themselves in a position to no longer benefit from court officers. This situation does not result from the court. The legal requirements of the rights of defense are therefore respected”, explains the president before a new suspension. When the hearing resumes, the accused’s box is empty. The nine who appear detained refuse to return to the room. The court-appointed lawyers also left the scene.

In a joint statement, the defense lawyers announced: “their indignation” in front of “the court’s obstinacy in wanting to judge this case at all costs” and talk about a “trial of shame”. The https://twitter.com/CNBarreaux/status/1795823138099659198l’https://twitter.com/AssoADAP/status/1794461474137485571 or even the https://twitter.com/NesaSte/status/1794250878561722770/photo/1 give them their support.

Are investigators actually available to testify?

A judicial source interviewed by AFP sees this as “a blocking strategy” on the part of the accused “to avoid being judged on the merits and in the hope of being released for unreasonable delays”. “If we stop a trial for these reasons, then we no longer judge any criminal case,” believes for his part Franck Rastoul, general prosecutor at the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal, cited by Provence.

But the twists and turns continued on June 14, when two defendants this time requested the recusal of the president they denounce, in a letter consulted by Corsica-Morningthe “patent bias”. As proof, they point to the hearing of the director of investigation, who revealed that she and her colleagues were in fact available to testify when the court wished, and that she had not been forced to take his leave due to the Olympics. “I was forced to move (the hearings) of the police officers, it was impossible to move all the other witnesses”defended Jean-Yves Martorano.

Consequence of this qualified hearing “out of the ordinary” by the attorneys general, the main accused did not have a defense, a very rare situation in the assizes. Only one of them, Jacques Mariani, returned to the dock on May 28. It was therefore in the jails of the courthouse, where they were taken every day before refusing to go to the courtroom, that three of them learned of the requests for life imprisonment against them, reports The world.

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