Former gendarme's appeal recognised as justified

In fact, the administrative court recognised André Steffen's appeal as justified. The court therefore annulled a ministerial decision and referred the case back to the current Minister of Justice. The State will have to cover the court costs.

In March 2018, the ex-gendarme had submitted to the then Minister of Justice a first request for a review of his criminal trial of June 1998 for attempted drug trafficking. Back then, the man was sentenced to four years in prison by the Luxembourg court. In May 2018, Felix Braz gave him a negative response.

Attached to this reply was an opinion of the Review Board, which, according to the former gendarme, had taken absolutely no account of the arguments he had presented. He then wrote to the Minister in September 2018 that the Board refused to consider the arguments in his application, but he received no response to his letter. He filed a second application for review in February 2019 to draw the Minister's attention to the incompleteness of the Board's opinion. Minister Sam Tanson never responded to it. Steffen finally turned to the administrative court in May 2019.

The judges of the administrative court first pointed out that the State had not submitted a brief. They also noted that the possibility of proving the partial or complete innocence of a person by a new fact refers to a law of April 1981.

This text contains all the elements that can shed light on a miscarriage of justice; it must be an element that was not known to the court that handed down a conviction. All that is required is that this new element is likely to prove innocence or cast doubt on guilt.

In the case of the former gendarme, there were new elements, which had already been wrongly disregarded by the Review Board in the first application. In addition, these elements should have led the Minister to satisfy his request. As the State had not taken a position, no check was possible on the part of the tribunal, so that the decision to reject the former gendarme's request for review is to be annulled.

The case was referred back to the Minister of Justice.