It’s a crazy affair that made headlines in the late 90s. It concerns Jamila Belkacem, nicknamed the serial poisoner. After months of investigation and many twists and turns, she was sentenced to life imprisonment.
In 1999, a call from a certain Myriam Maillard alerted the firefighters to the mysterious silence of Jacques Brunet. When they arrived at the scene, the man was discovered lifeless, partially charred when a fire broke out at his home. According to Myriam Maillard, it is an accident since she explains that the veterinarian used to take sleeping pills and fall asleep with a candle. Only, the man’s insurance considers that an investigation must be opened since traces of hydrocarbons in the apartment and on the mattress where the body was discovered were found. The widow of Jacques Brunet discovers that her husband’s accounts have also been emptied.
Immediately, Myriam Maillard becomes the main suspect. During the investigation, the investigators will discover that this is not his real name. In reality, her name is Jamila Belkacem. She was born in 1960 in Morocco, and landed in France in 1983. She was married to René Maillard and had four children with him. In 1994, they separated but did not divorce. That’s when she meets the vet and hides from him that she’s still married.. She will come up with a scheme to transfer money from her lover’s bank account to hers. She did not hesitate to drug him on numerous occasions. When she learns that he wants to buy a boat to go around the world with her, she would have taken the decision to kill him so that he does not realize that he has no more money.
The incredible manipulation of his daughter to poison his father
If she has always denied the facts, she was sentenced to 20 years in prison after being found guilty of murder. But during her appeal trial, justice receives a letter from her husband, René Maillard. “I am writing to tell you that I will not come to trial as a witness because I am guilty. It was I who murdered Jacques Brunet on February 23, 1999 in the evening. This date haunts me. I’d rather kill myself free than behind barsWhen the gendarmes arrive at his home, the man is in a coma. Investigation will show that Jamila Belkacem pushed her eldest daughter to poison her father with an antidepressant chocolate flan and to post a false confession, so that she would be acquitted. During the appeal trial in 2006, Jamila Belkacem was sentenced to life imprisonment, accompanied by a 22-year security sentence.