The courts have refused to rehabilitate two men sentenced to hard labor for a murder in 1946.

The Court of Cassation has dashed hopes for the rehabilitation of two men convicted of a murder committed in 1946 in the Indre region. Seized one last time, the court rejected the request to overturn their conviction, definitively closing a case that has spanned several generations.

Raymond Mis and Gabriel Thiennot were found guilty of murdering a gamekeeper following an altercation in Saint-Michel-en-Brenne. Sentenced to hard labor, they have remained at the heart of a local and national campaign denouncing a miscarriage of justice.

A decision that brings to a close decades of controversy

In its decision, the Court held that, despite shortcomings in the initial investigation, the evidence in the case explained why suspicion had quickly fallen on the accused. Some testimonies, contested due to controversial circumstances of their acquisition, had nevertheless been dismissed during the review of the case.

A symbol of a long legal battle, this case remains deeply etched in local memory. Many towns in the region continue to pay tribute to the two men, despite this decision which puts an end to any prospect of a review.