By the admission of all the actors in the Bastia-Poretta double murder case, this trial, which was held before the Bouches-du-Rhône Assize Court in Aix-en-Provence, will remain a huge waste. In his submissions, Christophe Raffin, one of the two attorneys general, even confided that he had “a bitter taste” compared to “what we could have hoped for. We were engaged in a search for judicial truth and that did not happen.”
A reference to the second day of the hearing, with promising overtones. That day, Richard and Christophe Guazzelli, the main accused, revealed a new part of this case. Without mentioning the facts, they retraced their lives at length for several hours, one after the other, in front of the jurors. From their childhood to their adult lives, both deeply traumatized by the assassination of their father, Francis Guazzelli, on November 15, 2009. The latter is considered by the courts to be one of the pillars of the Brise de mer gang. The brothers’ tears filled the room. Hours of confessions that hinted at an acknowledgement of the events that occurred on December 5, 2017 in front of Bastia-Poretta airport.
Investigators eagerly awaited
The arrival of the investigators to the stand, essential to address the facts, is then impatiently awaited. The opportunity to reveal all the truths about this atypical issue. Two months of hearing, 15 accused, including nine prisoners, figures of organized crime, phones deemed to be inviolable whose contents were revealed and a prison guard accused of assassinations. Vendetta, war between criminal clans, there is no shortage of qualifiers to describe the substance of the case. Antoine Quilichini and Jean-Luc Codaccioni, the two victims, were presented as being close to Jean-Luc Germani, a man considered to be an important figure in Corsican organized crime.
“A new stage in Corsican criminal history, opposing two clans which can be named as follows: the “Germani” clan and the “Guazzelli-Mariani” clan, summarize the investigators. Due to the disappearance of their fathers, which they attribute to members of the ”Germani” clan, Richard and Christophe Guazzelli, Ange-Marie Michelosi and Jacques Mariani, helped by others, were concerned to avenge the losses of their loved ones and to organize not only the assassinations of important members of the “Germani” clan but also to carry out its total eradication.”
Except that the main accused will not be able to give any explanation on these elements. Nor even on the messages exchanged via the PGP, which attribute the role of each in the criminal project.
The accused leave the hearing with their lawyers
Second week of the trial, the tragedy of Incarville in Eure shatters everything, two prison guards are killed in the attack on the van transporting a prisoner.
At the Monclar courthouse in Aix-en-Provence, the proceedings were interrupted for several days and the schedule drawn up by the president of the assize court, Jean-Yves Martorano, was modified. The investigators’ hearings were rescheduled for mid-June, five weeks after the opening of the proceedings, due to holidays or the Paris Olympic Games, which were mobilizing the police.
This is the beginning of a judicial chaos. An initial request for adjournment made by the defense is rejected by the president. Faced with this decision, the lawyers of the main accused are challenged by their clients and leave the hearing.
In a press release, they mention a schedule that includes: “seriously undermines the principle of the oral nature of the proceedings, and deprives of meaning all the depositions that may be collected up to this appearance.”
In the same text, the black robes express “their indignation” at a forced march and speak of a “trial of shame”.
Court-appointed lawyers appointed by Me Monika Mahy-Ma-Somga, President of the Aix-en-Provence Bar, filed a second request for adjournment, due, they claimed, to the impossibility of reviewing the case file within a reasonable time. The president again rejected the request. Tensions were running high and the majority of the accused refused to appear. In a press release – a very rare occurrence – Franck Rastoul, Attorney General at the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal, also responded: “Justice cannot accept that, after seven years of proceedings, an accused person should paralyze a criminal trial by rejecting his lawyer and refusing to appear.” The magistrates do not want to give in to what they call the defense’s “strategy.”
Jacques Mariani returns to the box
Since Thursday, May 23, with an empty detainee box and the defense lawyers’ benches unoccupied, it has been a one-sided hearing that almost turns into the absurd.
The following week, Jacques Mariani chose to return to the dock with his lawyers. “to prove his innocence.” He can attend the investigators’ presentation. But also to the declaration of the director of investigation, on June 10, which specifies “never been on leave, nor his colleagues”. A few days later, several detainees requested the president’s recusal: “Obviously, there was never any question of impediment, they write in their request. It is clear that no steps have been taken to ensure that the investigating witnesses are heard as a priority.”
“No matter the outcome of the trial, I will have regrets”
They denounce “a deliberate choice by the president thus seriously undermining the coherence of the debates, their intelligibility and the effective exercise of the rights of the defense, all under the cover of an imaginary impossibility…”
The request is rejected. The debates end without further developments. Except that Jimmy Bailleul also reappears a few days before the requisitions of the attorneys general.
Detainees who refuse to appear, remaining daily in the cells of the Aix courthouse, receive the verdict remotely, like the report of the rest of the proceedings. “There was a surge of sincerity that was going to invade the debates and you cut it all off, summed up Christophe Guazzelli in May before leaving the box for good. I decided to explain myself because my silence was becoming much too heavy. No matter the outcome of the trial, I will have regrets.”
The Poretta trial ended with the feeling of a missed turn by all parties.
