Rabat- Twenty-eight years after his conviction in France for the murder of Ghislaine Marchal of which he claims to be innocent, the investigative committee of Omar Raddad’s case will finally announce its decision following his request for retrial.
The investigative committee held a meeting yesterday to examine an appeal from Omar Raddad’s lawyer. A decision will finally be announced on October 13.
Omar Raddad’s lawyer, Sylvie Noachovitch, tweeted ‘’The investigating committee will make its decision on October 13 and will decide in particular on my requests for expertise by a specialist laboratory capable of carrying out genetic robot portraits and research into relatives.”
Omar Raddad ‘s case is one of the most enigmatic and controversial criminal cases in France. It began in 1991 with the discovery of the body of Ghislaine Marchal, a wealthy woman who was stabbed to death in her luxury villa in Mougins.
At the crime scene, the now infamous phrase “OMAR M’A TUER” (Omar killed me) was found written in blood. This led the investigators to Omar Raddad, the victim’s gardener, who firmly denied the accusations.
Omar Raddad was arrested and convicted to 18 years of prison in 1994.
Despite receiving a partial pardon from President Jacques Chirac, and a conditional release in 1998, Raddad felt that he was still viewed as guilty by the French judicial system.
A call for a review of his case was requested following the publication of a report in 2019 which provided empirical proof of his innocence.
According to the New York Times, the report revealed that ‘’Mr. Raddad’s DNA and his fingerprints were never found at the crime scene. Instead, in 2015, the traces of four unknown men were located at the scene thanks to advances in DNA technology.’’
Today, this new development in Omar Raddad ‘s retrial will determine the faith of a case that has been described as a ‘’symbol of miscarriage of justice in the popular imagination.’’
Read Also: The Case of Omar Raddad: A 2019 Report Proves Omar’s Innocence
