Jérôme Douheret was sentenced in Lyon for “concealment of a corpse” to 22 months in prison. The murder at the origin of the case, committed in 2001 and confessed to by his father, was never tried. It is covered by the prescription because of a complaint lost by the judicial services.
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This conviction resolves a “cold case” (“unresolved case”) dating from 2001 with a chaotic history, marked by the loss of a complaint from the victim's family which could have lifted the statute of limitations. Jérôme Douheret has just been sentenced to 22 months in prison for concealing the body of Mohamed Abdelhadi. The maximum penalty incurred is two years. He appeared for hiding the body in a cupboard in the family home in Limas (Rhône), then in his grandmother's cellar in Caluire, near Lyon, before burying it in a wood in Beaujolais.
Mohamed Abdelhadi disappeared on December 9, 2001 in Villefranche-sur-Saône (Rhône) at the age of 27. For years, his family increased research without any progress.
The case rebounded in 2015, when a woman, victim of domestic violence, accused a father and his two sons of having killed her.
In police custody, the father admits to having hit and stabbed Mohamed Abdelhadi, because of the theft of a record player, in the context of drug addiction. His two sons confirm the scene and specify that the body was hidden then buried in a wood, where it was found in 2016.
The father is then indicted for murder and imprisoned for murder, his eldest son for complicity and the younger for concealment of a corpse.
But the father's lawyer took legal action, considering that the limitation period of ten years from the crime had passed in the absence of “interrupting act” in the procedure.
However, in 2008, Mohamed Abdelhadi's family filed a complaint for “disturbing disappearance” at the Villefranche-sur-Saône police station. Procedure numbers were even found in computer archives, but the files disappeared from local police stations and courts.
After several legal episodes, the criminal chamber of the Court of Cassation considers that the crime has prescribed, due to a lack of material evidence supporting the existence of an “interruptive act”. As a result, the father and eldest son benefited from a dismissal of the case.
This Thursday, November 7, only the youngest son was tried for “concealment of a corpse”. For this “continuing offense”, the statute of limitations begins upon the discovery of the body, i.e. in 2016, and not on the date of the murder.
He found himself alone at the bar of the criminal court to explain the murder he witnessed and why he kept this secret.
“I remained paralyzed. I couldn't believe it. I did what he asked to do“, explained the defendant, describing a very violent father and a degraded family context which favored his addiction to narcotics. Summoned as a witness, his father did not appear at the hearing.
The president of the criminal court chose not to follow the prosecutor who asked for two years in prison. She noted a slight alteration in Jérôme Douheret's discernment, under the influence of narcotics and his authoritarian father. This explains a sentence slightly lower than the legal maximum of two years that the prosecutor requested at the hearing on October 8. She nevertheless justified her judgment by recalling the seriousness of the facts and the duration of the silence (15 years) of the accused.
For Mohamed's sisters, this conviction is a satisfaction. “That was our goalconfie Rashida Abdelhadi. No bracelet, no imprisonment under judicial supervision. We wanted him to be deprived of his freedom like he deprived that of my family“For the other sister, Nawel, the sentence is appropriate because the accused “will have nothing else to do but think about Mohamed every day“.
Rachida Abdelhadi speaks of a “extraordinary trial“. First trial in the criminal court for a murder which should have already been tried before the Assize Court.”We felt a criminal court atmosphere, it was very, very trying for us. It allowed us to put down everything we had inside us, all our lives that had turned our lives upside down for fifteen years.”
The prosecutor's indictment, which asked for two years in prison, was the strongest moment of this trial for the family. “My dismay is nothing compared to your anger“before presenting”apologies from the judicial institution“due to procedural flaws.”The words of the prosecutor were very strong because it was the first time that our judicial institution apologized to us in person.” tells us Rachida Abdelhadi.
The Abdelhadi sisters remain hopeful that other trials will target the Douheret family. “In this family, no one should be freesays their lawyer David Metaxas. Christophe – Jérôme's brother – and Patrick (the father) must also be judged“. Rachida and Nawel also have this hope. “This trial today is a tiny hope that opens up to us. If we judge for “concealment of a corpse”, we must also judge for murder because one does not exist without the other“.
Jérôme Douheret was sentenced to 22 months in prison with a deferred committal warrant, meaning he will begin serving his sentence in a few weeks.
