AN AMERICAN nurse will go on trial in Monaco today charged with the arson attack that triggered a bizarre chain of events culminating in the death of one of the world’s wealthiest bankers, Edmond Safra, in 1999.

The jury at the biggest criminal case held in the Principality will be told that Safra was killed by a combination of his own fear, official bungling and the tortured projects hatched by his nurse, Ted Maher.

Mr Maher, 44, the sole defendant, is accused of arson with attempt to harm and faces a 20-year prison sentence if found guilty. Among the civil parties legally represented at the trial are Safra’s widow, Lily, the London socialite who inherited most of his fortune, which was estimated at between £1.5 billion and £2.8 billion.

The case will also be a trial for Prince Rainier’s Government as it tries to shore up Monaco’s reputation as one of the safest places on earth for the rich and famous.

If the hearing exposes flaws in the official thesis that Safra died from a freak accident, the conspiracy theories that have swirled around the affair will be reinforced — with disastrous consequences for Monaco’s image.

Prosecutors will tell the court that the nurse from New York lit the fire that asphyxiated Safra as a part of botched attempt to further his own career. He had planned to rescue his billionaire employer from the flames in the penthouse in Monte Carlo and emerge as the hero, they will say. But Mr Maher failed to take into account Safra’s paranoia. Believing himself to be the target of an assassination plot, the 67-year-old banker locked himself in his bathroom, refused his wife’s pleas to come out and died of smoke inhalation, along with another nurse, Vivian Torrente, 52, also American, the prosecution will say.

Mr Maher’s lawyers will argue that Safra, whose acquaintances included the Prince of Wales, in effect killed himself and Mrs Torrente.

They will ask awkward questions of the authorities in Monaco, pointing out that local police officers had sealed off Safra’s home on the night of the fire and prevented his private security guards from entering the building.

The lawyers will also cast doubt on a three-year inquiry that has failed to dispel some of the mysteries surrounding the case. They include a crowbar found outside the flat, evidence that strangers were seen leaving the building and unidentified traces of male DNA under Safra’s fingernails.

The defendant’s lawyers are likely to point out that Safra, a Lebanese Jew, was convinced that the Russian mafia, as well as Palestinian terrorists, wanted to kill him. He was suffering from Parkinson’s disease and a few days before his death in December 1999 he had sold his New York-based Republic National Bank to HSBC of Britain.

But there was no link between the deal and that arson attack, according to Daniel Serdet, Monaco’s chief prosecutor. He will tell the three jurors that Mr Maher stabbed himself in the stomach and thigh after taking painkillers and then told his colleague, Mrs Torrente, that the penthouse was under attack. At the same time, he lit a fire in a dustbin in the one of the 20 rooms in the flat.

Safra, whose paranoia had driven him to install 15 security cameras in the penthouse, took refuge with Mrs Torrente behind a reinforced door in his bathroom. His wife telephoned him on his mobile to tell him to come out, saying that there were no intruders, that the whole scenario had been invented by Mr Maher. The authorities also told him this, twice. But he refused, remaining in the bathroom even as it was filled by smoke from the ventilation system.

Mr Maher has confessed to lighting the fire and one of his lawyers, Georges Blot, said: “He wanted to be liked and respected. He wanted to be the saviour.” But another of his lawyers, Donald Manasse, hinted at another theory likely to be aired by the defence, suggesting that Mr Maher could have been manipulated by Safra’s enemies.

One indirect result of the trial will be to throw an unwelcome spotlight on the bitter relations between Mrs Safra and the banker’s five brothers and sisters. Safra’s widow inherited most of his wealth, and much of the rest went to charity, to the fury of her in-laws. She has had three husbands and all died leaving her substantial fortunes.

EDMOND SAFRA

• Born in Beirut in 1932, second son of a Sephardi Jew from Aleppo, Syria
  
• Married Lily Monteverdi — no children
  
• Personal fortune: $4 billion (£2.54 billion)
  

• Settled in Brazil; founded Trade Development Bank in Geneva, later sold to American Express

• Founded Republic National Bank of New York in 1966

• Eight homes in France, Britain, US, Switzerland, Lebanon and Monaco

• Died in Monaco on December 3, 1999

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