LETELLIER v. FRANCE JUDGMENT 3 Ms D. LABADIE, avocat, Counsel. 7. The Court heard addresses by Mrs Belliard for the Government, by Mr Weitzel for the Commission and by Ms Labadie for the applicant, as well as their answers to its questions. On the occasion of the hearing the representatives of the Government and of the applicant produced various documents. AS TO THE FACTS I. THE PARTICULAR CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE CASE 8. Mrs Monique Merdy, née Letellier, a French national residing at La Varenne Saint-Hilaire (Val-de-Marne), took over a bar-restaurant in March 1985. The mother of eight children from two marriages, she was separated from her second husband, Mr Merdy, a petrol pump attendant, and at the material time was living with a third man. 9. On 6 July 1985 Mr Merdy was killed by a shot fired from a car. A witness had taken down the registration number of the vehicle and on the same day the police detained Mr Gérard Moysan, who was found to be in possession of a pump-action shotgun. He admitted that he had fired the shot, but stated that he had acted on the applicant’s instructions. He claimed that she had agreed to pay him, and one of his friends, Mr Michel Bredon - who also accused the applicant -, the sum of 40,000 French francs for killing her husband and that she had advanced him 2,000 francs for the purchase of the weapon. Mrs Letellier denied these accusations although she admitted having seen the murder weapon, having declared in public that she wished to get rid of her husband and having given her agreement "without thinking too much about it" to Mr Moysan who had proposed to carry out the deed. She maintained, moreover, that she had given 2,000 francs to Mr Moysan, whom she described as "a poor kid", so that he could buy a motor car. 10. On 8 July 1985, in the course of the first examination, the investigating judge of the tribunal de grande instance (Regional Court) of Créteil charged the applicant with being an accessory to murder and remanded her in custody.