May 12, 2013. This is the date that the Fiona case started.
Almost eight years have passed since then.
And the file continues ... Thursday, April 22, the mother of the little girl will know if the investigative chamber of the Court of Appeal of Lyon accedes to her request for release, or on the contrary rejects her request.
To discover
"A little voice told me to leave": who are the voluntary disappearances and why do they choose to evaporate in nature?
Her tenant owes her more than 31,000 euros, she lives in a motorhome
Read also: Fiona case: Cécile Bourgeon requested her release, decision on April 22
On December 16, 2020, at the end of her fourth trial, the thirty-something was sentenced to twenty years imprisonment for "violence resulting in the death" of Fiona, five years, "without intention to give it".
His ex-companion Berkane Makhlouf meanwhile was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
To read also: Fiona case: the mother sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment, the stepfather to 18 years
A verdict that had the effect of a bomb.
It was the first time that the girl's mother had been sentenced more severely than her stepfather.
In February 2018, they had both been sentenced to twenty years in prison.
In November 2013, she was sentenced to five years in prison for various offenses, and he to twenty years in prison.
After reporting Fiona's disappearance in a park in Clermont-Ferrand, Cécile Bourgeon and Berkane Makhlouf ended up confessing that the little girl was dead and that they had buried her in a wood.
But their statements never made it possible to find the remains of the child.
Towards a fifth trial?
On December 16, 2020, a few minutes after the announcement of the judgment of the Rhône Assize Court, Cécile Bourgeon's lawyers announced that they would appeal to the Supreme Court.
"There will inevitably be a fifth Fiona trial
,
"
said Me Renaud Portejoie in particular.
Will the Court of Cassation decide in this direction by quashing the latest decision?
The high court has not yet ruled.
In the meantime, the mother of the child, imprisoned after her sentence, has decided to apply for release.
To read also: Fiona trial: Cécile Bourgeon presents her "apologies" to her daughter
“She was sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment, but the cassation appeal is suspensive. She must wait for her new trial, if the Court of Cassation decides so, in freedom, ”
insists Gilles-Jean Portejoie to Le
Figaro
.
Unsurprisingly, during the hearing on April 1, the prosecution strongly opposed the release of the young woman. The decision was put under advisement on April 22. Whatever it is, it will be far from constituting the final episode of the Fiona case, which has gradually become one of the major French court cases in recent years.
