Overview
- Prosecutor Yves Dupas confirmed he has reopened the 2002 case of 29-year-old Japanese tourist Mika Kusama, calling the situation “more than complicated.”
- A complaint was filed after an assault that sources link to the case in which a victim was forced onto a boat with a bag over the head and left at sea.
- People named in that assault also appeared in the 2002 file kept by island gendarmes, which the defense had flagged as a line of inquiry that went unexplored.
- Two local brothers arrested in 2002 spent one and three years in pretrial custody, saw one conviction in 2007, and were both cleared by 2009 with no DNA tying them to the crime.
- Defense lawyers say the first probe failed to secure the crime scene, contaminated evidence, and ignored leads, while residents now voice hope that long-silent witnesses will speak.