Ten on Trial over Mafia-style Killing of Monaco Heiress

AFP - The imprisoned son-in-law of a murdered Monaco billionaire goes on trial Monday 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 euros ($14 billion), Janowski later retracted his confession, saying he had misunderstood investigators' questioning.