the required life for the two accused

On Friday, 16 November, Advocate General Benoît Meslin requested life imprisonment for Michel Fourniret and Monique Olivier, and asked the Assize Court of Versailles (Yvelines) to convict them of the murder of Farida Hammiche. 1988 (for him) and complicity of badbadination (for her), as well as the offense of stolen concealment, in this case part of the treasure gang of hairpieces.

Article reserved for our subscribers Read also A new Fourniret trial for gold from the "gang of hairpieces"

The two accused, aged 76 and 70 respectively, have already been sentenced to life imprisonment in 2008 in Charleville-Mézières (Ardennes), for the murders and murders of seven teenage girls and young women between 1987 and 2001. Incompressible loss of life for Michel Fourniret; with a twenty-eight-year security sentence for Monique Olivier.

In his indictment, an astonishing softness, Benoît Meslin called the jury to "Do not make a difference between the two accused, both equally guilty" : "Michel Fourniret acknowledged that it was he who had killed Farida Hammiche. Monique Olivier will want to convince you that she has had a less important role, and that she must be punished less severely. This is not my opinion. "

Article reserved for our subscribers Read also At the Fourniret trial, two specters in the box and a question in the air

"It's a couple, a two-headed eagle"

"She knew what Fourniret was capable ofhe continued. She was, of course, aware of Farida Hammiche's plan to suppress it. She helped, perhaps even more than Michel Fourniret, to train Clairefontaine ", where the 30-year-old was killed. "We are less suspicious of a woman. We are even less wary of a pregnant woman. " Selim Fourniret, the son of the couple, was born six months after the badbadination of Farida Hammiche.

Earlier in the morning, plaintiffs' lawyers had also insisted on the role of Monique Olivier. "It's a couple, a two-headed eagle, do not dissociate them, insisted M^e Yolaine Bancarel, lawyer of the Hammiche family. Without it, it is nothing. " For me^e Corinne Herrmann, lawyer of Jean-Pierre Hellegouarch, the former husband of Farida Hammiche, "She is his muse, she is the one who has armed the arm" from Michel Fourniret, "Little artisan of crime". "The trap was perfect because there was a woman in the story. We do not be wary of a couple », estimated M^e Didier Seban, who also defends Mr. Hellegouarch, and sees the couple Fourniret-Olivier "Absolute evil".

Article reserved for our subscribers Read also At the Fourniret trial, the endless silence of the defendants

"Killing for pleasure, so they can be someone"

"It's only their completely egocentric will to kill for pleasure, to be able to be someone, to show off in their own eyes"concluded Benoît Meslin, who surprised by his apathy, and whose weakness of the indictment reflects the almost anecdotal character – except for the relatives of the victim, obviously – of this "Fourniret's other trial", ten years after the nine weeks of resounding audience of Charleville-Mézières.

The civil parties have also expressed their deep regret that the Hammiche case, for which a judicial inquiry had been opened since 2004, was not judged at the same time as the other cases.

In 2008, Advocate General Francis Nachbar had, on the contrary, shown a rare virulence, using words of extreme severity about a duet he had "A lot of trouble imagining as human" : two accused "Absolutely monstrous", "Two cracks", «A big viscous spider and a small vibrating spider». After five hours of indictment – that of Benoît Meslin was five times shorter – he concluded "To stack, Fourniret. A gerber, Olivier ».

The verdict is expected in the evening, after the pleadings of the two defense lawyers.

Henri Seckel

See the reactions