Since the end of World War II, there have only been three assassinations of French judges. Judge Renaud on July 3, 1975 in Lyon, Judge Michel on October 21, 1981 in Marseille, and Judge Borrel on October 18, 1995 in Djibouti. The latter crime remains arguably the most mysterious. Thirty years later, the motive remains uncertain and no one has been charged. Are we heading towards a dismissal? For the widow of the murdered judge, who is herself a magistrate – now retired – and for her two sons, this is out of the question. “The criminal case is at a standstill, but it is still ongoing,” states this courageous widow, who has already won a crucial victory.
Until 2007, the French justice system favored the hypothesis of suicide for this 40-year-old magistrate, whose charred body was found in a ravine 80 km from the city of Djibouti. This theory of self-immolation by fire suited both states. But in June 2007, the Paris public prosecutor finally acknowledged in a press release that it was a “criminal act.”
And in July 2017, new judicial expert reports supported the murder theory. A panel of experts noted that “the fractures to the skull and left forearm are not thermal in origin and are consistent with blows inflicted by a third party.” In short, the judge was killed, then his body was moved to this ravine where it was set on fire.
“I succeeded in getting the murder recognized; I now want to know the motive, the perpetrators, and those who ordered it,” declares the widow. There are at least two leads. In Djibouti, Bernard Borrel was a cooperant at the Djiboutian Ministry of Justice. It is possible he had knowledge of certain complicities in the terrorist attack on the Café de Paris, which killed one person – a 9-year-old French child – on September 27, 1990, in the Djiboutian capital.
He may also have been investigating a trafficking ring for weapons-grade enriched uranium destined for a Middle Eastern country, as a handwritten note listing products used in the production of this uranium was found among his papers. Another clue: a few hours before his death, the judge had withdrawn the sum of 50,000 French francs [€7,600] in cash, which he subsequently left at his home. Was he being blackmailed? Or did he want to buy a sample of this highly sensitive material? The mystery remains.
“This is a French-French matter,” says the Djiboutian president
In January 2000, the case took a very political turn when a former Djiboutian security officer fled to Belgium and accused the chief of staff of President Hassan Gouled Aptidon of meeting with several officials from the regime’s security apparatus in the gardens of the Djiboutian presidential palace on the very day Bernard Borrel’s body was discovered. According to this defector from the Djiboutian government, one of the interlocutors reportedly said: “The snooping judge is dead and there is no trace left.”
The President of the Republic then issued a categorical denial. “This is pure fabrication,” stated one of his close associates. And since this incriminating testimony, the Djiboutian President has denied any involvement by his country and himself in the disappearance of the French magistrate. “This is a French-French matter. The Djiboutians have absolutely nothing to do with it. It is they [the French judges] who say that he [Bernard Borrel] was assassinated.”