The defamation complaint filed by Jonathann Daval’s defense against Alexia’s mother and sister was dismissed, the Vesoul prosecutor’s office announced on Tuesday March 26. Mr. Daval was sentenced, in November 2020, to twenty-five years in prison for the murder of Alexia, his wife.
The open procedure was “disclosed for lack of prior complaint”, Mr. Daval not wishing “to cause any further harm, with a new complaint, to the Fouillot family”, specifies prosecutor Arnaud Grécourt, in a press release.
On February 19, 2024, Mr. Daval’s lawyers filed a complaint with the Vesoul public prosecutor for “public defamation”, targeting comments made by Isabelle Fouillot and Stéphanie Gay, Alexia’s mother and sister, in the fourth episode of the television series entitled Alexia notre fille and broadcast by the Canal channel.
A turnaround
“Upon receipt of this complaint, an investigation was ordered. It appears from the hearing of Mr. Jonathan Daval, carried out by the gendarmerie services, that he has not viewed the documentary” and that he “does not wish to file a complaint against Isabelle Fouillot and Stéphanie Gay”, specifies the prosecutor.
The law of July 29, 1881 on freedom of the press – which provides for and punishes defamation – “makes the complaint of the defamed person an essential precondition for prosecution,” notes Arnaud Grécourt. However, “taking into account the desire of Mr. Jonathan Daval, expressed on several occasions not to file a complaint for these facts”, “no criminal proceedings can be taken”, specifies the magistrate.
According to Randall Schwerdorffer, Mr. Daval’s lawyer, his client changed his mind between the initial filing of the complaint and the time of his hearing by the gendarmes. “I think the hysteria that followed after filing the complaint affected him and he wants it to stop,” he told Agence France-Presse.
Unreleased version
According to the complaint filed, Isabelle Fouillot and Stéphanie Gay presented in the series “an unprecedented version of the affair, unequivocally accusing Jonathann Daval of having deliberately poisoned his wife to cause the miscarriage, to “drive her crazy” and cause discomfort.”
However, these elements on a possible poisoning of Alexia Daval had been dismissed during the trial before the Haute-Saône Assize Court. The complaint denounced “a desire to present the Daval affair to the public from an inaccurate angle” with the aim of “harming” Jonathann Daval.
Jonathann Daval strangled his 29-year-old wife in 2017 at their home in Gray-la-Ville (Haute-Saône), before burning her body in a wood. For three months, Jonathann Daval had shown the face of a grieving widower in the media. After multiple reversals, he admitted to the murder of his wife during a violent domestic dispute as well as the cremation of her body.
Mr. Daval must appear on April 10 before the Besançon criminal court for slanderous denunciation against his in-laws, in particular for having accused his brother-in-law of being the author of the murder of Alexia, before admitting his lie.
