A criminal case that rebounds ... 20 years later.
A 39-year-old Cameroonian, who had rebuilt his life in the United States, was extradited to France in June and then imprisoned pending trial in the Paris Assize Court for rape, reports
Le Parisien
.
To read also: "I recognize the facts which are reproached to me": a firefighter of Paris judged for the rape of a policewoman in Yvelines
On the night of September 30, 2001, a 27-year-old Finnish woman met two men in a nightclub in the 5th arrondissement of Paris.
She invites them to end the evening in her studio.
The young woman wakes up the next morning after a very drunken evening.
Problem: the two men are missing and she remembers absolutely nothing.
As
Le Parisien
relates
, she quickly realizes that her "
guests
" have stolen many personal effects from her (money, identity papers, cell phone, bank card, apartment keys).
More worryingly, he was left with a note advising him to take the morning after pill.
The suspect disappears from radar
The Finn quickly lodged a complaint for rape and theft against a vulnerable person. In the glass used by the young woman during the evening, investigators discover GHB, the rapist's drug. In March 2002, thanks in particular to a genetic fingerprint left on the bed, the police managed to arrest two young people: they knew each other well but blamed each other for the crime. One of the two, Jean-Guy, is released under judicial supervision, while his friend is dismissed. In September 2005, justice ordered a psychiatric expertise to better understand this Cameroonian, already convicted three times for theft, but he disappeared. An arrest warrant is then issued.
Settled in the United States, where he settled in 2004, the man lives under a different identity and studies. Father of two children, he met a woman and works as a waiter. He ended up being arrested in December 2020 in Washington DC before being extradited to France on June 9. He was remanded in custody by the Bobigny (Seine-Saint-Denis) prosecutor's office upon his arrival.
Twenty years later, the man says he is innocent. “
Yes, I slept with this girl. But I didn't drug her. Today, I am waiting to be able to settle this case and to resume a normal life
”, he would have declared to his judges, according to
Le Parisien
. Quoted by our colleagues, his lawyer, Me Louise Dumas, believes that his client has changed and wants him to be released under judicial supervision. For his part, the Advocate General considers that this man should remain in pre-trial detention, recalling "
that from 2005, he completely disappeared from radar
" while he was under judicial supervision.
