“To date, Jonathan Bettez remains the main suspect in the disappearance, kidnapping and murder of a 9-year-old girl. »
This emerges from a motion filed by lawyers for Sûreté du Québec (SQ) police officers in court in December. A statement that the opposing party denies.
It has been more than four years since the Bettez family filed their civil lawsuit. No trial date has yet been set.
The Bettez family is demanding $10 million from the SQ, the police officers in charge of investigating the murder of Cédrika Provencher and the Quebec attorney general. They accuse the police of doing everything they could to make the population believe that Jonathan Bettez was a pedophile and murderer.
Since the civil lawsuit was filed, interrogations have been conducted, including against the Bettez family, the police and the buyer of Emballages Bettez. That from Martin Prud'homme, former director general of the SQ, is still awaited.
The two parties disagree on several points and have a court date from January 22nd to discuss them. Ahead of these hearings, new details are emerging.
A document submitted by Jonathan Bettez's lawyer, Me Jessy Héroux, states that the sketches and physical descriptions from eyewitnesses of the event do not match Jonathan Bettez.
Me Héroux adds: More importantly, eyewitnesses ruled out Jonathan Bettez during an identification session, pointing out that he did not match the person they had seen.
Quebec's attorney general wants to exclude the media and Jonathan Bettez
Quebec's attorney general's lawyers want to exclude the media and Jonathan Bettez from the courtroom, arguing that for reasons of public interest it is appropriate and consistent with the proper administration of justice to resolve objections in camera and ex parte.
In an application, they are calling for an exception to the principle that court hearings should be public.
Among other things, the defendants argue that the file requires this information to be treated confidentially because it is a criminal investigation file that is still active and no criminal charges have yet been filed.
Quebec's attorney general wants to prevent elements of the investigation into Cédrika Provencher's murder from coming to light.
According to the application, the protection sought applies to several elements :
- crime scenes and bone finds;
- identification of suspects;
- Information from the time of the kidnapping and about the victim;
- operational techniques and police investigations;
- Protecting the privacy of third parties.
It is claimed that publishing these details could harm the ongoing investigation and prevent Cédrika Provencher's murderer from being brought to justice.
Jonathan Bettez's lawyer objects. A media consortium wants to challenge the application by the police officers' lawyers.