Djibouti should not be given the Borrel killing case file Commentary
Djibouti should not be given the Borrel killing case file
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Elisabeth Borrel [widow of French judge Bernard Borrel, killed in Djibouti in 1995]: "At the beginning [of this matter] the two states [involved], France and Djibouti, and in particular their two presidents – Chirac and Guelleh – agreed to ask the International Court [of Justice] to intervene, because they wanted to compel the French legal authorities to give a copy of the criminal file to Djibouti. Last September the French authorities recognized the death of my husband's service in the context of an attack, and no longer want to hand over a copy of this file.

I am personally absolutely opposed to giving a copy of the file to the Djiboutian authorities because they were personally involved:

  • the Djiboutian President is suspected of having been the possible ring leader and commander of my husband's murder.

  • the Djiboutian Public Prosecutor is suspected of having put pressure even in Belgium, on one of the most important witnesses, and this pressure is still continuing.

State pressure was evident on the twelfth anniversary of my husband's murder in October 2007: a part of the witness's family, although they have Djiboutian nationality, has been expelled from Djibouti to Yemen while the other part – the children and the other parent – has been kept in Djibouti.

This is a perverse trial because the Djiboutian Public Prosecutor who himself wrote the request asking the International Court to intervene, is a member of the Djiboutian delegation to the International Court. It is the subject of an arrest warrant issued by international french justice and broacast by Interpol. He seeks in this way to get international diplomatic immunity before his trial by the Court of Versailles on next 13 March, in order to avoid the possibility of being declared guilty of suborning a witness. My husband was responsible for judicial cooperation with Djibouti at the time of his death, yet the Djiboutian authorities have waited 12 years before opening criminal proceedings; they have done this only because they were personally involved, and wish to lead the investigation in the wrong direction, far away from the Truth."

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