The Million-Dollar Murder - Palais de Justice

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The Place du Bourg-de-Four, a trading place since Roman times and the oldest square in Geneva, is framed on one side by the long facade of the Palais de Justice. The site began in 1474 as a convent of Poor Clare nuns founded by Duchess Yolande of Savoy; after the Reformation it became the city's general hospital, was rebuilt between 1706 and 1712, and has housed Geneva's courts since 1860. In June 2009 it hosted one of the most talked about trials in Swiss history. Édouard Stern, a 50 year old French banker, former heir apparent at Lazard and one of the richest men in France, had been shot four times in his Geneva penthouse on 28 February 2005, dressed in a latex suit and tied to a chair. His lover Cécile Brossard had been promised one million dollars, which Stern froze just four days before his death. She cleared away evidence, flew to Australia and was arrested about two weeks later. Before the Court of Assizes and a jury of twelve, her defence pleaded a crime of passion, while the prosecution said the money was the reason for his death. On 18 June 2009 the jury found her guilty of murder and sentenced her to eight and a half years, plus one Swiss franc in symbolic damages to Stern's children; she was paroled in November 2010.

Fatti principali

• 4 shots — Stern was shot four times in his Geneva penthouse: once in the head, then three more times after he fell.
• 1000000 US dollars — The sum Stern put into an account for his lover in January 2005, then asked his lawyers to freeze just four days before he was killed.
• 8.5 years in prison — The sentence a jury of twelve handed Cécile Brossard here on 18 June 2009, after rejecting her crime of passion defence.

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