His word was long awaited. Despite confessions and new revelations, in this first half-day of hearing before the Lot-et-Garonne Assize Court, the jurors witnessed silent tears rolling down the cheeks of Naïma Bel Allam. Sitting on the defense bench, by virtue of the judicial review granted to her in 2021, the 56-year-old accused, referred to the criminal court for the double murder of her daughters,…
His word was long awaited. Despite confessions and new revelations, in this first half-day of hearing before the Lot-et-Garonne Assize Court, the jurors witnessed silent tears rolling down the cheeks of Naïma Bel Allam. Sitting on the defense bench, by virtue of the judicial review granted to her in 2021, the 56-year-old accused, referred to the criminal court for the double murder of her daughters, in Nérac, followed very attentively every word spoken in the courtroom.
Scrupulously taking notes during the reading of the report of this file by President Nelly Emin, the mother showed her determination to respond to each point that she considers contentious, contradict each statement that she considers erroneous, clarify each approximation to great chronological reinforcement. The main question will still have to wait: where are Inès and Nawal? If no proof of the life or death of the two girls with multiple disabilities has been provided since December 2016, two antagonistic theses should clash until the verdict. That of the prosecution recording the violent death of the 12 and 13 year old sisters and that of their mother, claiming to have sheltered them in a secret location to avoid their placement.
Privacy
Accused considered distant, eruptive, sometimes violent according to her ex-husbands, Naïma Bel Allam has the answer to everything: “If I didn’t have this pig character, do you think I could have survived four years in detention? A detention that I should not have suffered…” Her face calms down when it comes to dwelling on her bond with her daughters, despite a heavy daily life assumed alone, most of the time, with her two children. deprived of speech, mobility, autonomy. Modesty is displayed behind his large square glasses, when we invite him to abandon his control of care to focus on the emotional bond. “I don’t want to take my privacy with my daughters and expose it in front of all these people…”
“If I didn’t have this pig personality, do you think I could have survived four years in detention? »
Recognizing her isolation, her moral fatigue, her carelessness during the months preceding the disappearance – or sheltering according to her version – of her daughters, Naïma Bel Allam was the subject of an investigation for neglect of children in the spring of 2017 after several months of absence of Inès and Nawal in the structure where they were welcomed during the day. In front of the jurors, she is combative in rejecting any act of murder. “I knew I was being listened to. Would I have killed my daughters while I was followed by the police? It’s absurd. »
Denial
The version served in police custody, suggesting that this woman, rarely entrusting her daughters even to those close to her, would have accepted the help of an unknown woman on a motorway rest area in Spain, was contradicted by the investigations, traced by investigators on the stand.
Missing girls in Nérac (47): our file
In December 2016, Nawal and Inès, two severely disabled sisters aged 11 and 13, disappeared while they were supposed to spend the end of year holidays with their mother. Since being indicted for homicide against vulnerable people, the latter has persisted in saying that her children are alive. Justice, for its part, leans towards the hypothesis of death even if no body has, to date, been found.
“What do you think about infanticide? », says Me Virginie Belacel. “It’s atrocious, abominable. » “What about denial? », adds the lawyer for the civil parties to the address of the accused: “Same. »
