Course

Joseph Marie Guillaume Seznec, born in Plomodiern

Plomodiern

Plomodiern is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in north-western France.-Population:Inhabitants of Plomodiern are called in French Plomodiernois.-References:** -External links:* *...

 in Finistère

Finistère

Finistère is a département of France, in the extreme west of Brittany.-History:The name Finistère derives from the Latin Finis Terræ, meaning end of the earth, and may be compared with Land's End on the opposite side of the English Channel...

 in 1878 and the head of a sawmill at Morlaix

Morlaix

Morlaix is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in northwestern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department.-Leisure and tourism:...

, was found guilty of false promise and of the murder of the wood merchant Pierre Quéméneur, conseiller général of Finistère. Among other things, Quéméneur had strangely disappeared on the night of 25/26 May 1923 during a business trip from Brittany to Paris with Seznec, a trip linked (according to Seznec) to the sale of stocks of cars (left behind in France after the First World War by the American army) to the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

. Though many other possibilities were advanced as to the disappearance and despite the body never being recovered, it was decided only to pursue the murder hypothesis. Seznec became the prime suspect as the last person to have seen Quéméneur alive, and was arrested, charged and imprisoned.

His 8-days trial, in the course of which nearly 120 witnesses were heard, closed on 4 November 1924. Seznec was thus found culpable, but since premeditation could not be proved and so he was condemned to hard labour in perpetuity (the avocat général had demanded the death penalty). He was taken to the Transportation Camp

Prison of St-Laurent-du-Maroni

The prison of Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni was the main penal establishment of French Guiana for a century...

 at Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni

Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni

Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni is a commune of French Guiana, an overseas region and department of France located in South America. Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni is one of the two sub-prefectures of French Guiana and the seat of the Arrondissement of Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni...

 in 1927, before being transferred to the prison

Prison

A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...

 of the Îles du Salut

Îles du Salut

The Îles du Salut are a group of small islands of volcanic origin about 11 km off the coast of French Guiana in the Atlantic Ocean...

 in French Guiana

French Guiana

French Guiana is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department located on the northern Atlantic coast of South America. It has borders with two nations, Brazil to the east and south, and Suriname to the west...

 in 1928.

Benefitting from a remission in his sentence in May 1947, he returned to Paris the following year. In 1953, in Paris, he was reversed into by a van that then drove off (the driver, later questioned, claimed not to have seen anything) and died of his injuries on 13 February 1954.

Miscarriage of justice?

Throughout the trial and for the rest of his life, Seznec never stopped proclaiming his innocence. His descendents fought on to have the case reopened and clear his name (notably his grandson Denis Le Her-Seznec). Until today, all their attempts (14 in total) have failed.

The "commission de révision des condamnations pénales" nevertheless accepted, on 11 April 2005, a reopening of Guillaume Seznec's conviction for murder. This decision could open the way to an eventual annulling of his conviction in 1924. The criminal chamber of the Court of Cassation

Court of Cassation (France)

The French Supreme Court of Judicature is France's court of last resort having jurisdiction over all matters triable in the judicial stream but only scope of review to determine a miscarriage of justice or certify a question of law based solely on points of law...

, France's appeals court, examined the case on 5 October 2006. At this point, Avocat général Jean-Yves Launay required the benefit of the doubt, to Seznec's benefit, raising more particularly the possibility of a police plot - the trainee inspector Pierre Bonny

Pierre Bonny

Pierre Bonny was a French police officer. As an inspector, he was the investigating officer on the 1923 Seznec case, in which he has been accused of falsifying the evidence, and left the police before the war. During the Second World War joined the French Gestapo, known as the Carlingue...

 (twenty years later to be assistant to Henri Lafont

Henri Lafont

Henri Lafont, real name Henri Chamberlin was the head of the French Gestapo during the German occupation in World War II.-Sources:*Magazine Historia Hors Série n°26 1972 by Fabrice Laroche...

, head of the Gestapo française

Carlingue

The French Gestapo or Carlingue was the name given to French auxiliaries of the Gestapo, based at 93, rue Lauriston in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, and active between 1941 and 1944...

) and his superior, commissaire Vidal were charged in the inquiry. At his side, the conseiller rapporteur Jean-Louis Castagnède maintained the opposite opinion, deducing on the one hand any such manipulation seemed improbable due to the few acts established by Bonny and on the other that the experts solicited by the cour de cassation had established that Guillaume Seznec really was the author of the false promise of sale of Quéméneur's property seized at Plourivo.

On 14 December 2006, the Cour de révision refused to annul Seznec's conviction, judging there was no new evidence to call doubt on Seznec's guilt, since the implication of inspector Bonny is (though an interesting element in itself) not new. The affair seems closed and a new request for an annulment unlikely. The Seznec family at first intended to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights

European Court of Human Rights

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is a supra-national court established by the European Convention on Human Rights and hears complaints that a contracting state has violated the human rights enshrined in the Convention and its protocols. Complaints can be brought by individuals or...

, but gave up on their lawyers' advice.

In popular culture

Several works have been published on the affair, and Yves Boisset

Yves Boisset

Yves Boisset is a French film director and scriptwriter.French director Yves Boisset began his career as an assistant director. After working with such directors as Hossein, Cioampi and Clement, he began directing short films until the late 1960s when he made his feature film debut...

 directed the film L'Affaire Seznec in 1992, with Christophe Malavoy

Christophe Malavoy

-Selected filmography:* Madame Bovary* Le Cri du hibou* La Balance* A Captain's Honor* Le Voyage en douce* Death in a French Garden-External links:...

 in the lead role and also starring Nathalie Roussel

Nathalie Roussel

Nathalie Roussel is a French actress of stage, television and film who is best known for her role in the 1991 films My Father's Glory and My Mother's Castle.-Filmography:*Moments de vérité .... Marie...

, Jean Yanne

Jean Yanne

Jean Yanne is the artist name of Jean Gouyé, born the 18 July 1933 in Les Lilas who died the 23 May 2003 in Morsains...

 and Bernard Bloch

Bernard Bloch (actor)

Bernard Bloch is a French actor.- Filmography :* 1972 : Albert Einstein : Un membre de l'académie d'Olympia* 1974 : Histoire de Paul : L'harmonica* 1980 : Fernand : Fernand...

.

The French band Tri Yann

Tri Yann

Tri Yann is a French band from Nantes , who play folk rock music drawing on traditional Breton folk ballads.The band was founded in 1970 by Jean Chocun, Jean-Paul Corbineau and Jean-Louis Jossic – all of whom remain members – hence the suggested name of Tri Yann an Naoned , Jean and Yann being...

 also wrote a few songs describing the affair.

External links

• WikiNews - "Guillaume Seznec restera coupable aux yeux de la justice française"
• WikiSource - l'arrêt de la Cour de Cassation.
• WikiQuote