Thirteen suspects in all face charges related to the kidnapping of Jacqueline Veyrac, the 80-year-old owner of the five-star Grand Hotel in Cannes and seaside La Reserve restaurant in Nice, who was snatched on the street near her home in 2016.
Shortly after midday on Monday 26 October, two masked men snatched Veyrac as she was about to board her SUV near her home in an upscale Nice neighbourhood.
In broad daylight, the assailants shoved her into a stolen Renault Kangoo van driven by an accomplice. A postal worker witnessed the incident and a pharmacist who knew Veyrac alerted the police.
Veyrac was held gagged in the vehicle, which was parked on a quiet street. She sought in vain to call for help and pound on the doors, and was only freed after wriggling free and catching the attention of a resident on the second day.
She was released before her before her family paid a 5-million-euro ransom. Veyrac told investigators one of the kidnappers threatened to kill her if she made any noise and that the assailants had forced her to drink a sedative.
Mastermind or scapegoat?
The main defendant is Giuseppe Serena, 67, a former manager of La Reserve who is alleged to have held a grudge against Veyrac after she terminated his contract over poor management in 2009.
Serena is accused of ordering Veyrac’s abduction with a view to obtaining a ransom that he planned to use to open a new restaurant. Investigators said several accomplices designated the bankrupt Italian as the mastermind of the operation.
Serena, who is also accused with two other defendants of a previous attempt to kidnap Veyrac in 2013, has been in pre-trial custody for four years. He denies all charges.
“The others are using him as a scapegoat because he had a dispute with Mrs. Veyrac,” said Serena’s lawyer, Corentin Delobel. “There is no objective element that supports the charge.”
Ex-soldier admits, ex-paparazzo denies
Investors say 50 percent of the ransom was to have gone to Serena and the rest for other accomplices, including 10 percent for Philip Dutton, 52, a homeless former British soldier.
Dutton has admitted to involvement and is also one of the suspects in the 2013 plot.
Paparazzo-turned-private-detective Luc Goursolas, 50, has admitted to fitting a tracking device to Veyrac’s car but claims he was unaware of the kidnapping plot.
Three suspected members of a gang from a poor Nice neighbourhood are accused of carrying out the kidnapping, with a fourth accused of serving as an intermediary between the group and Serena.
Five other defendants accused of overseeing Veyrac’s captivity have to explain to judges why traces of their DNA were found in the van.
Other defendants include another Italian accused of helping to plan the 2013 and 2016 plots as well as a man who was a minor at the time of the incident.
Veyrac inherited her fortune from her late husband, who developed the Grand Hotel as a palatial seafront establishment that hosts celebrities during the annual Cannes international film festival.
The trial is expected to run until 29 January.
