It is a case in the case.
This Thursday, October 8, Me Randall Schwerdorffer, lawyer at the Besançon bar, appears before the Strasbourg Criminal Court (Bas-Rhin) for “violation of professional secrecy” in the Daval case.
In question ?
A cigarette break.
On December 7, 2018, like most of the protagonists of the Daval affair, Me Randall Schwerdorffer and his partner Me Ornella Spatafora are at the Besançon courthouse (Doubs).
The two lawyers assist their client Jonathann Daval, who is that day confronted with his in-laws in the investigating judge's office.
Read also: Daval case: from the missing jogger to the return to the assizes of the husband
Since the summer, Alexia's husband, found dead at the end of October 2017 in a wood of Haute-Saône, accuses her in-laws, her brother-in-law and his sister-in-law of having killed the young woman, then of to have made a pact of silence.
This version of a "family conspiracy" does not convince many people, but Jonathann Daval clings to it.
Alexia's family requests - and gets - a confrontation with the computer scientist.
On December 7, 2018, Jonathann Daval therefore successively faces his brother-in-law Grégory Gay, his sister-in-law Stéphanie Gay then his mother-in-law Isabelle Fouillot.
He is particularly moved when the latter shows him a photo of Alexia and their cat Happy.
Me Schwerdorffer then goes out to smoke a cigarette.
He crosses paths with Martine Henry, Jonathann Daval's mother, and reports that her son is
“devastated”
and that the situation is
“complicated”
.
A few minutes later, the Bisontin goes back to the judge's office and, like the other people present, witnesses Jonathann Daval's new confession live.
Meanwhile, Me Gilles-Jean Portejoie, the lawyer for the Gay couple, who is patient outside the investigating magistrate's office, discovers that the press echoes the confrontation between Jonathann Daval and Isabelle Fouillot.
Furious, he brings up the information.
Lawyer faces one year in prison
The Besançon public prosecutor decides to prosecute Me Randall Schwerdorffer for “violation of professional secrecy”.
According to article 226-13 of the Penal Code,
“the revelation of information of a secret nature by a person who is the custodian of it either by state or profession, or because of a function or a temporary mission, is punished by one year of imprisonment and a fine of 15,000 euros ”
.
The case is disoriented in Strasbourg.
On January 23, 2020, the hearing is postponed to April 28 due to a strike by lawyers.
But the holding of the trial is once again prevented, this time by the coronavirus pandemic.
Read also: Jonathann Daval's lawyer sued for breach of professional secrecy
This Thursday, October 8, Me Randall Schwerdorffer will be defended by a trio of lawyers: Me Marylène Correia (from the Strasbourg bar), Me Jean-Baptiste Euvrard (from the Montbéliard bar) and Me Antoine Fittante (from the Metz bar).
“Our colleague did not commit any offense.
He just showed humanity towards his client's mother.
As lawyers, it's something we do every day, and that's normal! ”
, confides Me Euvrard to
Le Figaro
.
"This is the Randall Schwerdorffer trial, but it is also an opportunity to enshrine the freedom of expression of lawyers."
Will the judgment of the Strasbourg Criminal Court be rendered on the bench or under deliberation?
Me Euvrard
"hopes"
in any case that the decision will be known before the long awaited trial of Jonathann Daval.
The latter will be tried from November 16 to 20 before the Assize Court of Haute-Saône and the Territoire de Belfort, which sits in Vesoul.
Detained in the Dijon remand center for two years and eight months, the computer scientist faces life imprisonment for “murder on a spouse”.
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