Adnan Syed is free and no longer suspected of the murder of his ex-girlfriend, which he always denied. The Baltimore prosecutor on Tuesday dropped the charges against this American released in September after 23 years in prison, a case reported in the worldwide hit podcast Serial.
The 40-year-old was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2000 for the murder of his former girlfriend Hae Min Lee in Baltimore, on the east coast of the United States. In an unexpected turnaround, prosecutor Marilyn Mosby filed a motion in September to have the verdict set aside. She had explained that she had doubts about her guilt since the discovery of “two alternative suspects”. Additional DNA tests ruled out his guilt, according to his lawyer.
A judge had validated his request and released Adnan Syed, pending the prosecutor’s decision to close the case definitively or to organize a new trial. Marilyn Mosby had 30 days to decide.
Journalistic counter-investigation
The case began in February 1999, when police found the body of 18-year-old Hae Min Lee half-buried in a Baltimore woods. Arrested at the age of 17, Adnan Syed was sentenced to life imprisonment a year later.
According to the prosecution, he had not supported that she left him for another and had strangled her. He has always proclaimed his innocence, claiming to be the victim of anti-Muslim prejudice.
In 2014, a team of journalists conducted a counter-investigation, told in twelve episodes in the first season of “Serial”. A precursor to the era of podcasts, this radio soap opera has, according to its producers, been downloaded more than 300 million times. It also inspired an HBO documentary.