2023-12-18 17:40:22
He won’t budge. Nicolas Zepeda denied on Monday having killed his ex-girlfriend Narumi Kurosaki, rejecting “a horrible accusation” from the start of his interrogation before the Assize Court of Appeal in Vesoul. “I’ve waited a lot for this moment actually, despite the pressure, the stress, despite the fact that it’s a horrible accusation for something I didn’t do,” said the 33-year-old Chilean, who was sentenced last year to 28 years in prison for the assassination in Besançon of the young Japanese student in 2016, whose body was never found. “I am ready to answer your questions. Above all, I am no longer afraid to answer you,” the accused told the court early in the afternoon.
The interrogation should have started in the morning, but the defense lawyers obtained several suspensions of the hearing by requesting an adjournment of the trial, a request refused by the court. My Renaud Portejoie and Sylvain Cormier invoked the testimony of an investigator a week and a half ago: the lawyers complained of having received only the day before “a document of 150 pages” presenting differences with the oral testimony of the investigator. In February, Nicolas Zepeda, son of a former senior official in the telecoms sector, had already obtained the postponement of his appeal trial after arriving at the hearing without a lawyer.
“A few lies”
Since the start of the trial on December 4, the Chilean has evolved in his version, conceding “a few lies”: he thus admitted to having voluntarily gone to the university residence where Narumi was staying in Besançon to meet her, while he was pleading until then the chance encounter. But on the essential, that is to say his guilt in this alleged feminicide, he has not budged one iota: he did not assassinate Narumi, despite the body of evidence which led him to his conviction at first instance.
Video. “The family comes without any hope”: Nicolas Zepeda tried on appeal for the alleged murder of Narumi Kurosaki
Leaning on the box, dressed in a black fleece, Nicolas Zepeda did not recognize any responsibility in Narumi’s disappearance on Monday when the president reminded him of his past lies and asked if he had lied on other points. “No, spontaneously”, no other lie comes to mind, he replied in good French learned in prison.
This brilliant 21-year-old Japanese student disappeared on December 5, 2016. Her body was never found. Nicolas Zepeda, who met her in 2014 when he was studying economics and business management in Japan, was quickly suspected. For the prosecution, this Chilean described as possessive and jealous could not stand that she ended their relationship a few weeks earlier and killed her by premeditating his act: coming from Chile to France, he suffocated or strangled Narumi in his university dorm room before disposing of the body, according to investigators’ findings. The verdict could come on Thursday.
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