In Auch, Naïma Bel Allam faces justice: troubling evidence emerges

The second day of the trial was marked by the Gers assize court’s interest in a brownish stain discovered in the teenage girls’ bedroom. The discovery of this stain, which contained the DNA of one of the two girls, put Naïma Bel Allam in a difficult position. She was placed under formal investigation in January 2018 for “aggravated intentional homicide.” She was initially prosecuted for “abandoning minors.” She had claimed that she had entrusted her daughters to a Moroccan couple at a motorway service area in Spain.

Despite the existence of this large dark stain, one metre by forty centimetres, on the parquet floor of the home in Nérac (Lot-et-Garonne), it was not possible to prove that the two teenagers had died, due to the absence of bodies and the limitations of scientific analysis. Regarding the stain’s outer surface, “the chemical search for blood is negative,” Professor Christian Doutremepuich, who heads the forensic haematology laboratory in Bordeaux, said by videoconference, while explaining that the stain’s composition may have been “altered” by intensive cleaning.

To read: Nérac missing girls case: Naïma Bel Allam back in court

The alteration of the stain could be explained by the numerous cleaning products, including bleach, found in the bedroom of the two girls, aged 12 and 13 when they disappeared in December 2016. Although it is impossible to establish the presence of blood, analysis of the stain made it possible to identify the DNA of both teenagers, since skin cells were found, the expert explained. “Inès and Nawal were severely disabled, and moved around only on their buttocks,” argued defence lawyer Jean-François Renaudie.

Today, the French National Gendarmerie Criminal Research Institute (IRCGN) conducted a morphoanalysis of a stain that this time appeared beneath the parquet slats, Nice-matin reports. It concluded that the existence of “a trace of blood mixed with other liquids could be supported.” “I find that there are some strange things in this case,” the accused declared. She then asked: “My lawyer had to go to great lengths to obtain the identity of the person whose DNA had been found beneath the slats. Why doesn’t the public prosecutor’s office make the effort to investigate in every sense of the term?”

To read: A Moroccan woman sentenced to 14 years in prison in France

Accused of aggravated intentional homicide, Naïma Bel Allam, a former accountant of Moroccan origin, had been sentenced, on 20 June 2024, to 14 years’ criminal imprisonment by the Lot-et-Garonne assize court. Her trial in Auch for “the murder of minors under 15 and vulnerable persons” continues until Thursday 27 March 2025.