Marcel Vadella takes the stand for the first time at the Haute-Corse Assize Court, this Wednesday, November 27, 2024. Jeans, brown shoes, gray jacket, the 51-year-old man with graying hair combed back appears free for the firearm murder of Jamal Fadil and the attempted murder of Jaoide Fadil, on December 19, 2020, in Lupinu, in the neighborhoods south of Bastia.
“I never intended to kill, launches the accused in front of the jurors. Even if reason tells me that I had this moment of survival. I had to kill a man to survive.” His voice chokes with emotion. Marcel Vadella stops his testimony on the verge of tears. The events took place on Santa Maddalena Street, at the L'Arcole bar, managed by the accused. Marcel Vadella was also the owner of the bar Le Typique, managed by the Fadil brothers, a few steps from L'Arcole.
“I cut your head off with an axe”
He has just explained the sequence of events which led to the “skid”. A word used by Michel Bonifassi, the president of the court, to understand how a commercial dispute over the payment of rent could turn into a tragedy. »At the time of the events they owed me 8,500 euros.” In his version, the accused says he asked the siblings to return the bar to him. By mail and by telephone message to Jaoide Fadil, but also physically the day before the tragedy, at the bar “the typical”: “Where you pay, or you leave. That's what I said. Jaoide tells me, 'Next time you leave me a message like that, I'll cut your head off with an axe.'”
“I saw myself die”
According to Marcel Vadella, the Fadil brothers would have made his departure conditional on payment of the sum of 80,000 euros and would have threatened to burn the establishment and cut his throat. He subsequently describes what amounts to a lynching: “I'm scared. I saw myself dying. They were jumping on me.”
The version Jaoide Fadil heard this Thursday is radically different.
In this context where the merchant describes himself in a state of shock, he is preparing to file a complaint on Saturday December 19, 2020. That day is also his birthday: “I took the handgun because I was getting ready to return to my bar to drop off some bottles of champagne. Between the complaint and the moment the police were going to arrest these people, there was a risk .The charger was already stocked.”
“Of course I apologize.”
According to him, the victims come to contact him: “one of the brothers said to me: The bar, you don't understand, you don't open it, otherwise I'll cut your throat.” I had the misfortune of saying: “I’m going to the police station.” At that moment, Jamal said to me: “If you go to the police station, I'll cut your throat. Jamal is on me, it's hand-to-hand. Jaoide hits me on the right temple, Jamal takes a shiny blade from his pocket. He throws himself at me, I step back and I fire.”
The president points out that no knife has been found by the investigators. Marcel Vadella has a hypothesis on the subject: “The waiter was the first in contact with the body and he was able to make the blade disappear”
Me Mourad Bathik, counsel for the civil parties, points out his lack of words for the victims when their criminal record has been highlighted at length: “I don't dare imagine the suffering of Mr. Fadil, the father, replies the accused. Of course I apologize.” The verdict is expected on Friday.
