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Egyptian diplomat’s murder: prosecutor calls for acquittal of defendant’s girlfriend

Murder in Geneva: MPC requests acquittal of friend
Switzerland’s Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona is dealing with a case involving the murder of an Egyptian diplomat in Geneva in 1995. The main defendant is an Italian-Ivorian dual citizen. Keystone-SDA

The Swiss attorney general has called for the girlfriend of the main defendant in the case of the assassination of an Egyptian diplomat in Geneva in 1995 to be acquitted. The woman is charged with complicity in the murder.

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The Swiss prosecutor believes that the murder charge against the defendant, an Italian-Ivorian car salesman, should be maintained.

However, there is no evidence that his girlfriend knew about the DIY silencer found at the scene of the crime, nor its destination, let alone her companion’s criminal plans, even though her DNA had been found on the object, he told the Federal Criminal Court.

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Under such circumstances, the prosecutor concluded, an acquittal was necessary and the costs should be borne by the Swiss federal authorities.

Given the seriousness of the case before the court, it had not been possible to acquit the accused under a simplified procedure, the prosecutor said.

The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland has now moved on to the charges of rape and confinement of two former girlfriends.

The verdict is to be announced on January 27.

Translated from French by DeepL/sb

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.

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