Samir Limani, aged 41, was sentenced today to thirty years in prison for the murder of his partner Aurelie Vacquier, who was found buried in April 2021 under a concrete slab at the couple’s home in the south of France.

After a four-hour conference, the jury found the ex-serviceman and truck driver, who strongly denies femicide, “guilty” of murdering Aurelie Vacquier, 38, and sentenced him in line with the proposal of the attorney general.

When the verdict was announced, Samir Limani started screaming: “I am innocent! Justice! Justice!” before he was removed from the room.

“This crime is horrific. I ask that you declare Samir Limani guilty of murdering his partner Aurelie Vaquier and sentence him to thirty years in prison“, prosecutor Damian Kinsey said during his arraignment.

For his part, the defendant’s lawyer asked for his acquittal in the face of an “absence of certainty”. And Samir Limani once again declared his innocence in a final outburst before the verdict.

“You will set me free. I want the investigation to start again, with a new investigator, new investigators. We need to find the one who did this!“, said the accused, who was given the floor for the last time.

Between tears and vindictive speeches, often incoherent, he denounced a media-influenced investigation, claiming that “he’s not a monster.” “Oreli was a good person. They killed her and buried her in my houseshe said before sitting down.

Limani, a divorced father of two, was on trial since January 9 for “murder”. He was facing a life sentence for the murder of 38-year-old Oreli, who was found dead on April 7, 2021, in Bedarie, a small town near Montpellier.

This sentence “deserves serial criminals“, the prosecutor explained during his trial. For the rest, however, he appeared uncompromising, recalling that Vacquier “had a violent death».

The prosecutor then referred to the “preposterous hypothesis” that an unknown person murdered the young woman in her home, then buried her in the couple’s own home.

A version that Samir Limani continues to support, explaining that the events unfolded while he was absent for a few days at his father’s house.

“Lies, lies, lies… this stranger is you, Samir Limani“, said the attorney general.

“Shipwreck”

For the prosecution, Aurelie Vaquier “she never left her home». The receipt; He was wearing pajamas and slippers when he was murdered.

In relation to a message she had sent on January 28 to announce that she was leaving for the country to “read and write”? “A lie” compiled by Limani, according to Kinser.

Although the “overdue” statement of her disappearance, almost a month later, to the police is “the first evidence against him“, Samir Limani “he signed his guilty plea,” when he claimed he saw nothing suspicious when he returned to their home on February 6.

Then as he was doing some work, he couldn’t help but notice, according to the prosecutor, a concrete slab where police found Oreli’s body.

“Motivation; I am not inside the mind of Limanis“, said the prosecutor. But he mentioned the “wreck of a couple lost at sea”, which had “board a plan» which did not succeed in creating a vegan restaurant in Bedarie. “This turned into a nightmare, he wanted to replace her“, emphasized Damian Kinsher.

For his part, the defendant’s lawyer denounced an investigation that had from the beginning focused on the alleged guilt of Oreli’s partner.

“There couldn’t be anyone else“, where “he knew Oreli, who knew the place” and whom Oreli did not suspect, the lawyer asked.

For weeks, Samir Limani underlined, “could dispose of the corpse” rather than hiding it in a house where she would be searched by the authorities. “But no, he remained there, waiting. Does this all make sense?” for a murderer, he emphasized.