The alleged murderer of student Sophie Le Tan was sentenced on Tuesday to six months in prison for witness tampering.
Jean-Marc Reiser, alleged murderer of student Sophie Le Tan in 2018, was sentenced on Tuesday to six months in prison for witness tampering after sending a letter to his former companion in which he invited him to “clarify or modify” his previous testimonies. He was also ordered to pay a symbolic euro in compensation to the civil party.
The prosecution had requested one year’s imprisonment and a ban on contacting his former partner against Jean-Marc Reiser, imprisoned since 2018 and who will be tried by the Bas-Rhin assizes at the end of June for the assassination of Sophie Le Tan. Jean-Marc Reiser, 62, writes regularly to the one who had shared his life for eight years even if she never answers him, she explained at the bar. This missive, received last summer, had however “made him wince”, she underlined. “It was not a normal letter, it scared me,” she explained of this letter written in very tight handwriting and containing several underlined passages.
According to the prosecution, Jean-Marc Reiser would have entrusted it during a visit to his mother, who would then have posted it or brought it to his former companion. What the defendant denied. “It scared me: is he sending people to my house to put envelopes in my mailbox? I was afraid that after his incarceration he would send someone to take revenge on me “, continued his ex-girlfriend.
“For me there is no pressure, no blackmail.”
She described the blows, the anger, the arguments and the influence under which she lived during their relationship, even if they did not live together. Jean-Marc Reiser, taken from his cell for the occasion, khaki sweatshirt and hard look, admitted having written the letter but assured that it was in no way a threat.
“Everything I say in this letter is in the file, I did not invent anything and I put it in front of its contradictions,” he said, very sure of himself. “For me there is no pressure, no blackmail.” Jean-Marc Reiser already has a busy judicial past: sentenced for rape to 15 years in prison in 2003, he will be tried at the end of June for the assassination in 2018 of Sophie Le Tan, a 20-year-old student from Strasbourg whom he confessed to having killed, after months of denials. He faces life imprisonment.