- Title: ARGENTINA: Parent of 2011 French murder victim talks to Reuters ahead of trial
- Date: 21st March 2014
- Summary: BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA (MARCH 20, 2014) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (French) FATHER OF MURDERED FRENCH TOURIST, JEAN-MICHAEL BOUVIER, SAYING: "I prefer, when there are doubts in benefit of the accused, when there is not strong legal-medical evidence, not weak evidence, I prefer guilty people to be free over innocent people in jail. And I am speaking about Cassandre here, if I
- Embargoed: 5th April 2014 13:00
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- Location: Argentina
- Country: Argentina
- Reuters ID: LVA81BN1F3BUNUOUH7KBVHYRPVGZ
- Story Text: The trial of five Argentine men accused of sexually assaulting and killing two French tourist is set to begin on March 25 bringing hopes of closure for the victims' families.
The men are accused of the crime which sent shockwaves through France and the northern Argentine province of Salta where the young women were found stripped and shot to death nearly three years ago.
Cassandre Bouvier and Houria Moumni, 29 and 24-years-old respectively at the time, were travelling in Salta on July 15, 2011 when they went missing.
Their bodies were found beaten and with evidence that they had been sexually assaulted on July 29th near the San Lorenzo nature preserve overlooking Salta.
Three men, Gustavo Orlando Lasi, 25; Daniel Octavio Eduardo Vilte Laxi, 24; and Santos Clemente Vera, 38, face charges of double homicide, aggravated sexual assault and robbery.
The other two, 48-year-old Omar Dario Ramos and Antonio Eduardo Sandoval have been charged with aiding in concealing a crime.
Cassandre Bouvier's father, Jean-Michael Bouvier, on Thursday (March 20) said despite some criticisms he has over the investigation itself, that he is hopeful some of the questions surrounding his daughter's death will finally come to light during the trial.
"Judge (Martin) Perez's dossier has some contradistinctions. There are clearly clues that have not been investigated, so I hope, at the level of a judge, without prior, I have faith that the province of Salta's justice system will answer my questions. More fundamentally, all parents of victims hope to know the truth. At the same time, I know the truth is not easy to know if it is not known at the start of the investigation with exhaustive, well-done research procedures done in accordance to international standards - for example doing an anthropological analysis - and these have very specific criteria and for me they were not respected in Salta," Bouvier said.
A lawyer representing the families of the victims, Nicolas Durrieu told Reuters anything could happen during oral arguments.
"Our expectations are to be open to the fact that anything can happen. The oral proceedings are where all of the evidence is looked at again and all the witnesses make direct statements. You can ask them questions and you can see firsthand how they react and well, after three years even the defendants can say something different, they could break, as it is called. So, with all the rumours - some more credible than others - but we are open to see if they will be corroborated in the hearing or not," Durrieu said.
There is mounting evidence against the victims with Lasi admitting to investigators that he raped one of the girls while indicating he was egged on by Vera and Vilte.
However, Lasi denied he took part in the murders.
Investigators also found DNA samples of Lasi and Vera on the bodies of the victims.
"I prefer, when there are doubts in benefit of the accused, when there is not strong legal-medical evidence, not weak evidence, I prefer guilty people to be free over innocent people in jail. And I am speaking about Cassandre here, if I believed there was life after death - I don't believe that and neither did Cassandre - but in any case, it would be the least, if there were a decision like that without medical evidence against one, two or three of the accused It would be a second death for Cassandre. We would defile her a second time," Bouvier said.
Family members of the two students have been highly involved in the international case travelling to Argentina to meet with investigators and collect the bodies of their lost loved ones.
The case is expected to last more than a month as witnesses are called and evidence is re-examined. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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