Three Cold‑Case Judges Designated to Reopen Robert Boulin Inquiry

Overview

• The tribunal presidency of Nanterre on Monday designated three investigating judges from the PCSNE (national cold‑cases unit) to take over and immediately resume instruction of the 1979 death of former minister Robert Boulin.
• Boulin’s body was found in an étang in the Rambouillet forest on 30 October 1979 and the case was long closed as a suicide; the family has repeatedly challenged that finding citing police photos, a second 1983 autopsy and other alleged investigative flaws.
• The file was formally transferred to the PCSNE by an ordonnance de dessaisissement on 28 April and the Nanterre public prosecutor asked for a PCSNE judge to be named on 26 June before the tribunal’s June 29 designation.
• Key witness work that revived the case came from Elio Darmon, whose 2022–23 testimony pointed to a possible perpetrator who died in 1986; Darmon himself died in April 2026, which both heightens urgency and limits lines of inquiry.
• The Boulin family and their lawyer have asked for new forensic steps such as a fresh autopsy and micro‑algae analysis of remains to test the drowning theory while reporting has highlighted the political context and past allegations linking the Service d’action civique to assaults on Boulin.