The Frenchwoman is due to appear in court in Tunisia on Thursday. According to her lawyer, she was confused with a Belgian with the same name sentenced in absentia to four years in prison after a road accident
A French woman has been detained for three weeks in Tunisia after being the victim of a homonymy, her lawyer said on Monday, according to which her client was confused with a Belgian national sentenced in absentia to a prison sentence.
Sophie Mireille Dumoulin, born in 1972, was arrested on her arrival at the airport on the island of Djerba on September 17 before being transferred to Manouba prison, in the suburbs of Tunis, said her lawyer, Houda. Haouami.
According to her, her client “is the victim of a homonym with a Belgian national called Sophie Anne-Marie Dumoulin, also born in 1972 and who was sentenced in 2018 in her absence to four years in prison for her involvement in a road accident in 2012. The accident left two people seriously injured, according to the lawyer.
“Overwhelmed”
Questioned by “Le Parisien” , Sophie Dumoulin’s daughter assures her: “My mother was not in Tunisia at this time in 2012.” Jennifer provided several documents to the Tunisian authorities to try to prove their error. In vain for the moment.
Sophie Mireille Dumoulin must appear Thursday before a court of first instance in Ariana in Greater Tunis which will examine the request for release presented by her lawyer. “We hope that the Belgian embassy will help us by providing the necessary information regarding the Belgian national so that my client can be exonerated,” added the lawyer.
“She is a strong woman with character, but she is in prison even though she is innocent. The last time we saw her in the visiting room, she was overwhelmed, she was crying, the victim’s daughter worries to the “Parisian”. My goal is to get her out of this quagmire. »
