By Laurent Derne
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His outing on class justice has not gone unnoticed. Furious at the decision of the investigating chamber of the Toulouse Court of Appeal, which refused, Tuesday March 22, 2022, to hand over Cedric Jubillar released, his lawyer, Me Alexander Martindropped, angry, to the traditional forest of strained microphones: “It is better to be a university professor than a plasterer to get out of prison”.
Dance teacher mysteriously disappears
For the uninitiated or new to Toulouse, the lawyer refers to the Viguier affair. And this release is not trivial. On Sunday, February 27, 2000, Suzanne Viguiera 38 year old dance teacher mysteriously disappears from his pavilion in the Ormeau district, in Toulouse.
According to the explanations of her lover, Olivier Durandet, the latter drops her off at her home at 4:30 a.m., after returning from a tarot tournament. The couple she forms with her husband, Jacques Viguier, university law professor of Toulouse, is then no more than a facade, in spite of the three children who have consecrated their love. He frequents mistresses himself.
Jealousy for motive
Quickly, the suspicions of the Toulouse PJ investigators turned towards the husband. The “notable” denies having killed his wife, despite a indictment for murder and nine months in pre-trial detention. Motive invoked by the investigators? The jealousy. The fear of what will be said.
At first instance, on April 30, 2009, the assizes of Haute-Garonne acquit Jacques Viguier, after ten days of debate. The Attorney General immediately appeals. The second trial takes place in Albi (Tarn). The accused is notably defended by Eric Dupont-Moretticurrent Keeper of the Seals. Eighteen days later, on March 20, 2010, he is definitively acquitted of the murder of his wife.
On the surface, parallels abound
Me Martin knows the Viguier file well. At the time, he was working for the Catala law firmthe great Toulouse criminal lawyer who obtained the first acquittal from the law professor in this case.
Observing the Viguier and Jubillar files on the surface, the parallels seem to abound : a breathless couple; a woman who lives in a separate room with her husband and sleeps on a sofa bed; the lack of an apparent crime scene; no corpse; nine months of pre-trial detention in both cases (Cédric Jubillar has just reached this threshold, editor’s note)…
Major difference? The testimonies of the son and the neighbors
So, copy-paste? Not quite. In L’Viguier affairthe absence of a crime scene is obvious, despite traces of blood and a missing mattress.
In L’Jubillar affaira crime scene begins to take shape, thanks in particular to two testimonials : that of couple’s son, little Louis, who hears his parents arguing around 11 p.m.; and those of neighbors who perceive “women’s cries, cries of terror”, at 11:07 p.m., the night of Delphine’s disappearance. Not counting the supposed confession from Cédric to his fellow prisoner, with whom he should soon be confronted. Although the plasterer still claims his innocence.
Frenzied media coverage
In any case, a final parallel could justify the comparison: the mediatization of the two cases. Both gave rise to booksmore or less controversial, even a feature film for the Viguier affair, “An intimate conviction”, with Marina Foïs and Olivier Gourmet. Although, with the advent of social networks and continuous news channelsthe Jubillar case seems to have taken a certain lead, now, on its predecessor.
By brandishing the specter of the Viguier affair, even in a roundabout way, Cédric Jubillar’s lawyer waves a red rag: that of a hypothetical “miscarriage of justice”. Of an innocent imprisoned for long months for nothing, despite his denials. Timely? Or opportunist?
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