10 on trial over mafia-style killing of Monaco heiress

Helene Pastor was leaving a hospital when a gunman shot her and her driver

The imprisoned son-inlaw of a murdered Monaco billionaire went on trial yesterday with nine other people suspected in the brazen daylight killing of the heiress, a case which prosecutors say bears all the hallmarks of a sordid crime thriller.

Helene Pastor was leaving a hospital in Nice on the French Riviera after visiting her son on May 6, 2014, when a gunman shot her and her driver in their car with a sawed-off shotgun.

The chauffeur died a few days later and Pastor fell into a coma, but she woke up and was able to tell investigators: “I’m afraid, I want to see you again because I have more to tell”.

Before she could, she died of her injuries on May 21.

Police quickly identified two men suspected of carrying out what they now believe was a contract killing orchestrated by Wojciech Janowski, Pastor’s Polish son-in-law.

After initially admitting to ordering the killing to get his hands on Pastor’s fortune, estimated at €12 billion (Dh51.2 billion), Janowski later retracted his confession, saying he had misunderstood investigators’ questioning.