The president of Besançon denounced Friday, November 19 to AFP "
an attack on freedom of expression
" after the cancellation of a signing session of the book of the lawyer of the murderer of Alexia Daval, Me Randall Schwerdorffer .
Read also Alexia and Jonathann Daval's house at the heart of a legal battle
The signing session was to take place in Besançon on Friday, on the eve of a national demonstration against gender-based and sexual violence.
It was canceled by the bookstore and the publisher of the lawyer, Hugo Doc, after the publication of a press release from the association Osez le feminisme du Doubs which accuses the author of "
the sickening instrumentalization
" of the murder of 'Alexia Daval, and accuses the bookstore of "
complicity
".
"An abominable passage to the act"
Me Schwerdorffer, lawyer for Jonathann Daval, had given his account and his analysis of the case in a book co-written with the journalist Frédéric Gilbert, and published in October. “
The purpose of this work is to explain the circumstances of a passage to the abominable act within a couple become toxic. In no case to justify it
”, maintained the editor in a press release.
"
The defense of violence against women is a just, noble and indispensable cause, but the pretext of this cause must not be allowed to hamper freedom of expression,
" said the president of Besançon, Mikaël Le Denmat, defending the “
right to express oneself
” of his colleague. "
Putting pressure on a bookseller to prevent a signing session constitutes an attack on freedom of expression, which is a fundamental right
," said the president of the bar. Me Schwerdorffer regretted being "
deprived of a debate with the readers
", considering that "to
explain a crime does not mean to excuse it.
".
The partially charred body of Alexia Daval, 29, was found in October 2017 in a wood near her home in Gray-la-Ville (Haute-Saône), after her husband Jonathann reported her disappearance.
Read also Dupont de Ligonnès, Daval ... Why we are so passionate about various facts
After showing the face of a tearful widower for three months, the computer scientist was confused by the gendarmes.
He finally admitted the murder of his wife and was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment in November 2020. Alexia's parents have also published their testimony in a book ("
Alexia, our daughter
", published by Robert Laffont).
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