Life imprisonment, with 22 years of security. As reported by our colleagues from Latest News from Alsacethe maximum sentence was requested on Monday against Jean-Marc Reiser, the alleged assassin of Sophie Le Tan.
“Unsurprisingly, I will ask you to answer yes to the question of whether he voluntarily killed him. And to the question of premeditation, I will also ask you to answer yes ”, launched to the jurors of the Bas-Rhin Assize Court the Advocate General, Laurent Guy. He demanded “an extremely heavy sentence”, life imprisonment, with 22 years of security, the heaviest incurred by Jean-Marc Reiser.
The accused denies any premeditation
Jean-Marc Reiser has been on trial for a week for the murder of Sophie Le Tan, whose incomplete skeleton was found in a forest in October 2019, more than a year after her disappearance. The Strasbourg student disappeared on September 7, 2018, the day of her 20th birthday, after going to visit Jean-Marc Reiser’s apartment in Schiltigheim, north of Strasbourg.
The evidence, in particular genetic and telephone, quickly converged on the one who, after two and a half years of denials, ended up admitting in early 2021 having killed and dismembered Sophie Le Tan, a confession maintained at the start of his trial on Monday. On the other hand, he still denies having premeditated his act and having set a trap for the student, in particular by having broadcast a false rental ad to which she had responded.
A dark, dark, chilling shadow
“The arrival of Sophie Le Tan in this apartment owes nothing to chance (…) It is indeed into a trap that she fell”, insisted the Advocate General, evoking “a ray of sunshine broken clean by a “black, dark, chilling shadow”.
Already convicted of two rapes, Jean-Marc Reiser is on trial for murder. The defense must plead at the end of the afternoon. The verdict is expected on Tuesday.