It is a highly anticipated trial which opens this Monday, January 31, 2022 before the Assize Court of Isère, in Grenoble. Less than a year after a first sentence of twenty years in prison for the murder of young Corporal Arthur Noyer, Nordahl Lelandais is on trial for that of Maëlys de Araujo, an 8-year-old girl who disappeared during a wedding at the end of the year. summer 2017. The case had aroused a huge wave of emotion in France, and it is already an extraordinary trial that is announced.
with our special correspondent in Grenoble, Eric Chaurin
The media coverage is exceptional with 261 accredited journalists for only thirty seats, hence the opening of an additional room with video retransmission…
The duration is also exceptional: extended to three weeks against the usual two and special supervision: reinforced security, psychological support cell for jurors, different colored cords around the necks of civil parties, measures inspired by the November 13 trial to know who agrees or not to answer the media…
Steps taken to allow this case to go to trial like all the others, with the same serenity and dignity of the debates “Explains the first president of the Grenoble Court of Appeal, Pascale Vernay…
Because all the elements are there to make the murder of Maelys one of the most significant events of recent years: a little girl in a white dress who disappears in the middle of a wedding banquet in a village hall. The phenomenon of identification comes into full play with all parents. And a defendant with a troubled personality. The 38-year-old former dog handler, Nordahl Lelandais, will put six months to confess to murder before leading the investigators to the girl’s body, without ever explaining his crime.
Also tried for sexual assault on two little cousins, he faces life imprisonment.
► Read also : Murder of Arthur Noyer: Nordahl Lelandais sentenced to 20 years in prison