Delphine Jubillar’s husband will find out this week whether or not he will be sent to a criminal court in connection with his wife’s disappearance.
The Toulouse Court of Appeal is due to rule on Thursday on the referral to the assizes requested by the public prosecutor’s office of Cédric Jubillar, accused of having killed his partner Delphine in December 2020 and having made her body disappear.
In a drawn-out procedure, Thursday’s ruling, if it goes in the direction of the referral, would make it more tangible than ever to hold a trial before the Tarn Assize Court of the 37-year-old painter-plasterer, who claims his innocence.
“At this stage, the investigating chamber must simply verify whether there is sufficient evidence to decide whether this case should be heard before a criminal court.”explained Me Emmanuelle Franck, one of the three counsels of Cédric Jubillar, who assures that she is not “of illusions” on the meaning of the decision that will be made.
During a closed hearing at the end of June, the chamber examined both the results of an additional investigation ordered in February following new elements which ultimately did not change anything in the accusations, and the appeal filed by Mr. Jubillar’s lawyers against the indictment order (OMA) issued on November 21, 2023 and referring him to the assizes.
An order in the crosshairs of the defense, up in arms against the fact that the investigating judges clearly described Cédric Jubillar as guilty.
“There is not much suspense about the decision” Thursday, explains Me Franck who nevertheless hopes that the magistrates of the court will return to this assertion of Mr. Jubillar’s guilt.
This OMA, “It is a document that could very well be read at the assizes by a public prosecutor or lawyers for civil parties and who would say ‘but look, even the investigating judges considered that the gentleman was guilty’, so it must be completely removed from the procedure so that neither the jurors nor the magistrates have knowledge of it or can read it”adds the lawyer who is defending the Tarnais along with her colleagues Alexandre Martin and Jean-Baptiste Alary.
“Public debate”
If Cédric Jubillar’s referral to the assizes is confirmed, the defense does not intend to appeal, specified Me Franck, and “will wait for a date” for a possible trial which, according to a judicial source, could be held in 2025.
“I really don’t see what other decision the court could take in the current state of affairs since the investigating chamber has already ruled about ten times in this case on the release of Jubillar, explaining that there were sufficient serious charges, and these charges are being provided to them again.”says Philippe Pressecq, lawyer for a civil party.
“This case, more than any other, deserves a debate before a criminal court, a public debate”he insisted.
Imprisoned for more than three years and indicted on June 18, 2021, Cédric Jubillar has seen all his requests for release, including the last one in July, rejected.
In this case with no body, no confession, no witness, no crime scene, no irrefutable proof, investigators are convinced that Cédric Jubillar killed his wife Delphine, who had just announced her intention to divorce him.
A nurse and mother of two, she disappeared on the night of December 15 to 16, 2020, in the middle of the curfew linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, in the village of Cagnac-les-Mines, near Albi.
