The Haute-Saône Appeal Court has accessed the request for the proceedings of the trial filed by the two new lawyers of the Chilean accused, after his previous council threw the in the towel.
by Pascale Robert-Diard (with AFP)
sentenced to twenty-eight years’ imprisonment in April 2022 by the Assize Court of Doubs for the assassination of his ex-Japanese friend, Narumi Kurosaki, Nicolas Zepeda obtained, Thursday, February, the referral of His appeal trial “to a later session”. The 32 -year -old Chilean and his parents seem to have been engaged for a week in a burnt, media and judicial land strategy.
It all started with the defection of the lawyer appointed ten months earlier to succeed Jacqueline Laffont, who had defended her at first instance in Besançon, in April 2022. In a letter read by the president of the court, On the first day of the trial, Tuesday, February 21 at the Vesoul courthouse Antoine Vey explained that he was withdrawing, failing to have received from his client a written mandate to ensure his defense.
Nicolas Zepeda immediately appointed two new advice, Renaud Portejoie and Julien Dreyfus. Thursday, February 23, the latter asked unsurprisingly the trial of another session “before summer or at the start of fall” to read the “8,000 to 10,000 dimensions [pages]” from the file. M e Portejoie made the full responsibility of the situation on the “failure” of his Parisian colleague, calling “absolutely unfairly” the conscience clause mentioned in his mail, which suggested a Disagreement on the defense strategy between the lawyer and his client.
“This trial is completed”
“My mission is not difficult, it is strictly impossible. What image of the judicial institution will we give if the trial is maintained? With perfectly helpless lawyers and an absolutely colossal issue [criminal imprisonment perpetuity ]. We will not artificially continue a trial where a man is devoid of lawyer able to assist him, “observed M e Portejoie, before launching the court:” This trial is Completed. It is up to you to send him back so that he is exemplary and justice passes. “” If you refuse to send the trial, it would be a defenseless trial, a truncated trial, “added M e dreyfus.
As the Advocate General, Etienne Manteaux, who had already supported the accusation during the first trial, that Sylvie Galley, the lawyer of the mother and the sisters of Narumi Kurosaki, present at the hearing, denounced a “Instrumentalization” of justice by Nicolas Zepeda. “We can wonder about the reasons why Nicolas Zepeda hides at the last moment. It is also a way for him to show him the man he is, the control he exercises on justice, as control that he exercised on Narumi … Yes, the rights of the defense are sacred but are not absolute, “observed the Advocate General, accusing” duplicity without limit “the Chilean.
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