The deliberation lasted three hours and the accused, found guilty of "complicity in acts of torture or aggravated barbarism", greeted the verdict with an impassive face.
The investigation revealed that the 52-year-old Albanian considered her "a woman to be slaughtered".
Judged since Thursday for having ordered the attack with sulfuric acid of his ex-wife in 2006 in Chambéry, in Savoie, he was sentenced this Saturday evening to 20 years of criminal imprisonment.
The Savoy Assize Court followed the requisitions of the public prosecutor, who had also requested a security period increased to two thirds and a definitive ban from French territory.
Before withdrawing, the Court had received a last word from Nexhmédin Dardha, without a mask for the first time since the start of his trial, the square face uncovered, who declared himself "innocent" of the charges.
Two henchmen convicted in 2009
He had no words of comfort for his ex-wife, absent at the hearing and for whom "the fear and the pain are still there", as the council of the latter Me Frédéric Verron specified in his plea .
He is a "criminal who does not go to work himself", he added, using the words of a letter from his client, denouncing an "aggressor who can be anyone and act whenever ".
Words that echoed those spoken earlier in the indictment of General Counsel Nathalie Hermitte.
The magistrate had asked the jurors "to make the right person carry the real weight of guilt", while two henchmen of the accused were sentenced in 2009 to ten and five years in prison in connection with this case , during a first trial.
Burned in the face in front of her daughters
“He made others do the dirty work, weaker than himself.
He used the other as an object, so as not to get caught, ”she added, denouncing the defense of the accused“ by half-truths, lies, silences and denials ”.
On September 14, 2006, the ex-wife of Nexhmédin Dardha had been burned to the second and third degree, face and body, after receiving a jet of sulfuric acid by a gloved and hooded individual.
The assault took place in front of her home in Chambéry, under the gaze of her two daughters.
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Immediately, the ex-husband of the victim and father of two children had been suspected of being the sponsor of this attack, from Albania where he had found refuge.
The lack of an extradition agreement with France had protected him until his arrest in 2019 during a trip to Italy.
He had been brought back to France under an international arrest warrant.
A change of identity
Since the start of his trial Thursday, the accused had been almost silent, delivering "words without relief", in opposition to the "emotion" of the professionals who had to deal with the case, fourteen years after the facts , at the bar of the Assize Court, according to the Advocate General.
By sponsoring the vitriolage of his ex-wife, "he said
I will erase you because you humiliated me
", had still estimated the magistrate in her indictment, while the victim, from whom the accused had divorced in 2004 , had rebuilt his life with another man.
In 2006, the victim had already filed a complaint twice against her ex-husband, for sabotage of his vehicle and death threats.
She has since changed her identity, like her children, for security reasons.
