Turnaround in the case of the murdered informant.
The two accused Fabrice Da Silva, partner of the victim, and his friend Mickaël Touraine were finally acquitted on Wednesday by the Val-de-Marne Assize Court which re-tried them, when they had been sentenced at first instance to 22 and 20 years' imprisonment for the assassination of the real estate agent Bandjougou Diawara, also a police informant.
The public prosecutor's office had requested that the doubt benefit the two accused
Advocate General Jean-Christophe Crocq had exposed his “questions” at length during his requisitions, in this highly publicized case which had started with the bloody murder with a shotgun in December 2010 of Bandjougou Diawara in Seine-Saint-Denis.
During the seven days of trial, the thesis put forward by the defense, that of an avenging execution of "Ben l'indica" by drug traffickers, gained ground in people's minds, until the lawyer's surprising requisitions general and the verdict of the jurors, who deliberated for almost three hours.
The motive not clearly established
Bandjougou Diawara, 32, was found on the road next to his vehicle, his skull fractured and a 12-gauge warhead lodged in his chest.
The alleged murder weapon was placed on the passenger seat of the victim's car, known to the police for drug trafficking.
On this sawed-off shotgun, "the DNA profile" of Mickaël Touraine had been identified.
Judged in Bobigny in 2018, the partner of "Ben", Fabrice Da Silva, had been condemned for having ordered this assassination, attributed to his friend Mickaël Touraine, without the motive having been clearly established by the investigation.
The Advocate General expressed many doubts on Wednesday concerning the incriminating evidence.
The two defendants had no problem with money.
The DNA found - or rather "the elements of genetic fingerprint" - was only "partial".
The telephones of the defendants were not switched off at the time of the crime and could have "been located".
When the verdict was announced, very strong emotion gripped the families of the defendants, who burst into tears of relief.
