Gardener Omar Radad wins the battle to restart the infamous murder case.
Written byTimes Magazine
A Moroccan gardener convicted 30 years ago of the gruesome murder of a wealthy French widow has won a bid to reopen the case and clear his name. In France's most notorious murders, Omar Radad, 59, was found guilty of stabbing his employer, Gislen Marshall, 65, to death.
His case hangs on a bloodied message around his neck next to his mutilated body that reads, "Omar killed me." But there is a glaring grammatical error in the note. Instead of using the verb in the participle to "kill" (tuée), the inscription uses the infinitive (tuer).
Mr. Radad's lawyer said it was founded because Marshall, a wealthy and highly educated woman, had never made such a mistake.
The case has long captured the attention of France and sparked accusations that Radad, an immigrant, was a victim of discrimination. Books and films portray judgment as a miscarriage of justice.
In 1996, two years after being sentenced to 18 years in prison, Radad was partially pardoned by French President Jacques Chirac. He was released from prison, but his sentence was never lifted. Omar Radad was released from prison in 1998 on a partial pardon.
The tracks of four unidentified men were found at the crime scene in 2015. According to Mr. Radad's supporters, one of them was the natural killer who framed him. Sylvie Noachovich, Radad's lawyer, said she had given him new hope with France's Supreme Court decision to review the evidence.
"This decision is a step to overturn the assessment," Noachovic said, "but the fight is not over." He said he hoped the retrial would "correct one of the greatest judicial mistakes of the 20th century".
The Marshalls claim the former gardener is guilty of murdering the socialist at their villa on the French Riviera. The DNA traces are said to be contaminated. And at Mr. Radat's trial, they said that he had a habit of making grammatical errors.
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