Jean-Marc Reiser, who admitted to having killed the Strasbourg student Sophie Le Tan in 2018, decided to appeal against her referral to the assizes for "
assassination
", contesting the premeditation, we learned Thursday from his lawyer.
"
Mr. Reiser lodged an appeal against the judgment of the investigative chamber of the Colmar Court of Appeal of October 14,
" his lawyer, Me Francis Metzger, told AFP, confirming information from France 3.
Read also Affair Sophie Le Tan: from the disappearance of the student to the prospect of a trial for "murder"
"
Mr. Reiser is in complete disagreement with the qualification of the facts: he is accused of having committed intentional homicide with premeditation, but he explained that he did not in any way premeditate
" his gesture, added the lawyer.
According to Me Metzger, the Court of Cassation should rule on this appeal within "
about six months
".
Sophie Le Tan had disappeared on September 7, 2018, her 20th birthday, when she was going to Schiltigheim, north of Strasbourg, to visit an apartment.
Sole suspect in this case
Author of the real estate ad, Jean-Marc Reiser, now 61 years old, was arrested a few days later, when traces of blood voluntarily erased had been found in his apartment, as well as the DNA of the student on a saw in his cellar. Sophie Le Tan's incomplete skeleton was found in the forest in October 2019. The only suspect in this case, Jean-Marc Reiser had been indicted for kidnapping, kidnapping and murder, despite his repeated denials. It was not until January, a few weeks after the end of the investigation, that Jean-Marc Reiser stopped denying his responsibility and confessed to the murder, during a final hearing that he himself had requested. before the investigating judge, after his lawyers threatened to let him go.
Read also: Le Tan affair: reconstruction in the suspect's former apartment
He then said, in the words of one of his lawyers, "to
have entered a phase of rage
" while the young woman rejected his advances.
At the end of the investigation, he was returned to the assizes for "
for murder in recidivism
".
The charges of kidnapping and sequestration had not been retained, in accordance with the requisitions of the prosecution.
If he is tried for murder, Jean-Marc Reiser faces life imprisonment.
He had already been sentenced in 2001 by the Assises du Doubs to 15 years imprisonment for rapes committed in 1995 and 1996, a sentence confirmed on appeal in 2003.
