Le Figaro Lyon
Anne-Laure Castro's family will be entitled to a second trial. Two weeks after the acquittal of Alassane S., the main suspect in the murder of the 23-year-old escort-girl, found tied up in 47 meters of plastic film in the Rhône in autumn 2019, by the Lyon Assize Court, the public prosecutor announced its willingness to appeal. The one who was presented by the investigation as the last client of the girl, whom he assures that she did not honor their appointment, had left the 24 columns free at the beginning of the month, after three years of pre-trial detention. A satisfaction for his lawyers, while their client claimed his innocence since the beginning of the case.
The hearing had highlighted the grey areas of the investigation of the criminal brigade of the judicial police of Lyon. The investigations had revealed a bundle of clues, especially on the telephone - the mobile phone of the victim and the suspect limiting on a relay of the neighborhood where Alassane S lived - but no formal proof. The CCTV footage showing a man pushing a shopping cart modified in the manner of the one used by the street vendor on the night of the murder in the area of the banks of the Rhône, was neither clear enough nor complete enough to identify him with certainty.
If the interviews of the suspect and his girlfriend, painted the profile of a violent man, behind the apparent shyness described by his wealthy family from Africa and the United States in Lyon, the latter claimed his innocence throughout the investigation and the hearing. The court had therefore not followed the attorney general's request for 25 years in prison out of the maximum 30 years that the suspect could face.