Swiss news weekly L’Hebdo magazine’s 2 June edition features on its cover the murder trial of Cécile Brossard, accused of killing her lover, wealthy French banker Edouard Stern, in 2007. GenevaLunch, a partner of l’Hebdo, brings you the English version in two parts.
French version © 2009 l’Hebdo
English version © 2009 GenevaLunch (may not be reproduced in part or whole without written permission).
Part two: Edouard Stern, a man and a banker in too much of a hurry
28 February, Geneva: a brutal end, at age 50, to the life of Edouard Stern. Known as the enfant terrible of his bank who was headed for disaster at some point, he finally succeeded in achieving that. He was the offspring of a financial dynasty who, at the age of 22, found himself at the head of the family bank. He turned it into a gem, then sold it in 1988 to Société de Banque Suisse. He then joined his father-in-law, Michel David-Weill, at the centre of power of another high finance bank, Lazard. But his temperament didn’t sit well with the traditionalists. For Stern, business was something to be done quickly, without personal involvement.
Geneva, Switzerland (Tribune de Genève, Fre) – The trial opened Monday 8 June of the 47-year-old TPG (Geneva transport company) bus driver charged with homicide by negligence in a January 2007 accident that took the life of a woman. The 52-year-old French nurse was driving a La Citroën on the Route de Florissant at 06:45 when the bus driver ran a red light, possibly going too fast, pushing her car several metres into a tree. She remained in a coma until her death six weeks later.
The US Supreme Court refused to get in the way of alleged Nazi death camp guard, John Demjanjuk’s, transfer to Germany where he will be tried for the murder of 29,000 civilians at the Sobibor death camp in occupied Poland in 1943. Demjanjuk, 89, is too ill to make the trip over seas, according to his lawyers. Despite these claims courts in both the US and Germany have denied his appeals. CNN
Former French President Jacques Chirac kept the promise he made to murder victim Ilan Halimi’s parents: 27 gang members who targeted Jews as their victims will go on trial in Paris for killing Halimi. Halimi was kidnapped and tortured for more than three weeks before his captors stabbed him, tied him to a tree and set him on fire three years ago. BBC
Roxana Saberi, a 31-year-old dual American-Iranian citizen, was tried on charges of spying for the US in Iran Monday 13 April. Saberi has lived and worked in Iran for the past six years as a freelance journalist for National Public Radio (NPR), BBC, and Fox News. Saberi was initially arrested for allegedly working without press credentials in January. The US is pushing for her release and a verdict will be reached within the next two to three weeks. Al Jazeera, NPR
Update 15:20 Josef Fritzl has been found guilty on all charges and sentenced to life: Fritzl is the man who made world headlines after he imprisoned his daughter, then the several children he fathered by her. He pleaded guilty to all charges against him, including murdering a child who was not given medical treatment. The jury is expected to hand in its verdict 19 March. One possibility is they will recommend he be placed in a psychiatric treatment unit. BBC
Josef Fritzl, 73, who made headlines in 2008 when his daughter Elisabeth and three of seven children he had with her were discovered in a locked cellar in Austria after one of them became ill. He pleaded not guilty as his trial opened, 16 March in St Poelten, Austria, to incest and “partially” guilty to rape charges but innocent to enslavement and murder. The murder charge is linked to the death of a twin he fathered with Elisabeth.
Fritzl is also charged with threatening to kill any of his prisoners who attempted to escape from the 40m2 basement prison that had no window, no ventilation, and a series of doors secured with electronic locks. Fritzl denies this accusation as well. Monday he heard and was questioned over taped testimony from his daughter. BBC, TSR, Reuters
Update 17:15 Sgarbi has been sentenced to six years in prison after confessing to the crime, but he has not said if he had accomplices nor has he said where the money has gone.
10:44 Susanne Klatten, a business woman who owns a 12.5% stake in BMW, reports the BBC, could testify against Helg Sgarbi, nicknamed the “Swiss gigolo” by the German media, in a sensational trial starting in Munich. He is accused of trying to swindle and blackmail several women, including the normally reclusive Klatten, out of millions of dollars. Klatten gave him several million after he threatened to go public with a videotape of them having sex, but she went to the police when he demanded more.
