Translated material
A million dollar deal
The trial of the killer of Nicolas Sarkozy's friend begins in Geneva
Today in Geneva the trial of the murder of French financier Edouard Stern (pictured) , who belonged to the famous dynasty of bankers, begins. In the dock is his mistress, 40-year-old blonde Cecile Brossard, a fashion designer by profession. She shot her 50-year-old friend with four shots at point-blank range on the evening of February 28, 2005, in his apartment in a wealthy Geneva neighborhood.As Vremya Novostei was told at the Geneva Palace of Justice, there is “an unprecedented hell in the form of pressure from the media” surrounding the case. In terms of the number of accredited journalists and the public willing to attend the hearings, the trial is being compared to the sensational 1998 trial of Russian Sergei Mikhailov, known as Mikhas. The prosecution claimed that he headed a mafia group, but the jury acquitted the defendant. There will be no excuses this time. Twelve jurors will have to choose from three options: premeditated murder, spontaneous murder and murder in the heat of passion.
Geneva Prosecutor General Daniel Zapelli, acting as prosecutor at the trial, charges Cecile Brossard with manslaughter. However, the indictment does include a financial motive. In addition, it lists in detail the wounds on the body of the murdered man, indicating the cruelty of the crime, and the killer’s attempts to hide traces of his crime.
The love affair between a young woman and a financier who occupied 38th place on the list of the richest people in France and was friends with the current president of the country, Nicolas Sarkozy, lasted since 2001. At the end of 2004, Cecile demanded that Stern marry her. “Proof of his love” was supposed to be the amount of $1 million transferred to her. Brossard promised that she would return the money later.
On January 12, 2005, Edouard Stern transferred the amount to an account at Credit Suisse in Montreux, but on February 25, in an email, he said that he was going to block the account. Cecile learned that the account was blocked on February 28 from a bank employee and went to meet her lover to demand an explanation.
As she herself said during a forensic psychiatric examination, Stern told her: “A million dollars is too expensive for a whore.” “As soon as he said this, it was like lightning struck me in my soul and heart,” Brossard said. For her, all dreams of marriage, family, and children collapsed. While Stern pulled on a pink latex jumpsuit and tied himself with a rope to a special chair for the next sadomasochistic love pleasures, Cecile went into the dressing room. There she took out as many as two revolvers (the financier had a whole collection) and, returning, shot him in the face.
When he tried to dodge, she hit him in the chest and side with two more bullets, and then fired a control shot into his temple. The psychiatrist involved in the investigation is inclined to conclude that it was a crime of love, and the money had “symbolic value” for Cecile.
Ms. Brossard fled the scene. She drove the car to Montreux, where she threw the pistol into the lake. Then she reached Italy. Having thrown away the shell casings along the way, she boarded a plane in Milan to Vienna and then to Sydney, Australia.
Cecile spent only a few hours in Australia and returned to Europe on March 4. She was met by relatives and taken to Zurich. However, the police are already on the trail. She was arrested, interrogated and placed in custody on March 15, 2005. Brossard immediately confessed to the murder and even helped find all the evidence: the murder weapon and her blood-stained clothes.
Despite the emotional overtones of the tragedy, money may have played an important role in it. It took more than four years to clarify all the circumstances of the murder and its motives. Cecile spent all this time in a Geneva prison with a break for a stay in a psychiatric clinic. During this time she wrote a book of 162 pages.
According to one version, Cecile Brossard sought marriage and money from Edouard Stern, blackmailing him with the mysterious death of the child of Russian woman Yulia Lemigova. The connection between Stern and “Miss USSR 1991” Lemigova began in 1997. In 1999, their son was born. In March 2000, he died, as doctors concluded, due to the fact that he was shaken very violently. Then, by order of Stern, Yulia was monitored, and the Bulgarian nanny, who was looking after the baby, suddenly disappeared. In 2004, Cecile Brossard invited Yulia Lemigova on a date and invited her to reveal the truth about the death of the child, but the Russian woman refused to continue the conversation. It is believed that this attempt at blackmail may well explain both Stern’s unexpected gift and the subsequent blocking of the million-dollar account. It is known that the financier also met with Lemigova at this time.
Lawyer Mark Bonan, who represents the interests of the Stern family (he has three adult children from his first marriage), has recently been leaning towards the same version as the prosecutor - about manslaughter. Cecile Brossard's lawyers intend to seek recognition of her actions as committed in a state of passion.
The motivation for the murder is essential to the verdict. In case of premeditated murder, the woman faces a maximum security prison for a term of 12 to 20 years. Spontaneous murder carries a maximum security prison sentence of five to eight years, with a possible reduction. If a state of passion is recognized, then the murderer’s case may end in just a year of ordinary imprisonment.