Omar Raddad: Pardoned Gardener Seeks Retrial in 1991 French Murder Case

Omar Raddad, 59, has been fighting for 27 years to prove his innocence. Accused of the murder of Ghislaine Marchal, the former Moroccan gardener had been sentenced in 1994 to 18 years in prison before being pardoned by former French President Jacques Chirac at the request of King Hassan II. He will benefit from parole in 1998 after seven years in prison. Omar is free but still guilty, because a presidential pardon does not cancel a conviction. The victim’s family continues to designate him as the sole perpetrator of the murder of the wealthy heiress.

The former gardener continues to fight. His defense obtained a request for a retrial of the case, after the discovery of traces of male DNA not belonging to him. "The fact that he is fighting even though he is taking the risk of a new trial, the risk of a new conviction since at the time he had benefited from extenuating circumstances - we wonder why, moreover - it’s really that he is innocent. Only the innocent fight like that, cling to it," comments his lawyer Sylvie Noachovitch to Gala.

"His life boils down to" his determination to prove his innocence, she specifies, noting that her client "holds on thanks to" his wife and children. The family lives in Toulon. The couple has two sons, one of whom has enlisted in the Navy, the other works at the town hall. A source of pride for Omar Raddad. The latter regularly visits his mother in Morocco.

The examination of the request for a retrial of his case is scheduled for December 16. "It’s a great emotion to plead before the court of revision because it’s a fight since 2008, a relentless fight," comments Sylvie Noachovitch again. Her client, for his part, says he still has faith in justice. "I find him fragile, he is in pain, he is a raw wound, so gentle. And who still has faith in justice. He tells me: ’I wasn’t lucky, I fell on a judge from the start who was convinced I was guilty, on gendarmes who overwhelmed me, but I know there are great judges and now we are before very high-ranking judges of the Court of Cassation, I have confidence. I just ask, like everyone else, to have a second trial. That’s all.’