How a lot time can justice dedicate to an investigation? Ought to she set limits to not exceed? A “affordable time”, for the victims as for the suspects? A recurring query within the judicial universe which might get hold of a solution, this Thursday, September 22, by a case regulation. The felony chamber of the Court docket of Cassation meets Thursday, September 22 in its plenary formation (a scenario particular to complicated circumstances which may result in a reversal of case regulation) to look at the thorny thorny file “of the boiler room of the Protection”.
>> It’s my business: the slowness of justice and the rights of litigants
This investigation, began on the finish of the 1990s, considerations the awarding of the profitable contract for heating the district of La Défense – hundreds of flats and places of work, but additionally the Nanterre tribunal de grande occasion. A number of businessmen are suspected of corruption and misuse of company property.
After seven investigating judges and 19 years and 7 months of investigation, the trial arrives earlier than the Nanterre courtroom on January 11, 2021. The listening to will not be lengthy. The attorneys for the defendants, together with Me Jean-Didier Belot, are asking for the proceedings to be annulled on the grounds that the circumstances for a good trial usually are not met, particularly as a result of the affordable time restrict has been violated. In response to article 6-1 of the European Conference on Human Rights, “everybody has the best to have his case heard pretty, publicly and inside an affordable time, by an unbiased and neutral tribunal”.
Usually, these petitions don’t lead to an annulment of the proceedings, however in compensation from the State for “dysfunction of the general public service of justice”. However that day, the judges determined in the course of the day to cancel the process. They word, in line with the judgment that franceinfo was in a position to seek the advice of, that “the character of the offenses prosecuted and the variety of individuals implicated (…) didn’t current [pas] distinctive character” and “the case (…) didn’t justify the continuation of felony proceedings for a interval of just about 20 years”. They see an investigation that “was extended in a completely uncommon approach”.
Particularly, the age of the defendants. One, Jean Bonnefont, is 99 years previous. The courtroom notes that it “is now not ready, because of his bodily fragility, to attend his trial”. One other, Bernard Forterre, is 82 years previous. “He was identified with Parkinson’s syndrome.” Throughout this investigation of just about 20 years, the previous senator-mayor of Puteaux, Charles Ceccaldi-Raynaud, died in 2019, on the age of 94. He was suspected of getting obtained 5 million francs. He was by no means confronted with the opposite suspects.
The Nanterre courtroom then considers that “the passage of time and the issues linked to previous age and their state of well being, notably by way of private reminiscence, don’t enable two of the defendants to have the ability to account for his or her actions and reply to the info (… ) twenty years after their fee”. The courtroom additionally considers that the circumstances for a good trial usually are not met as a result of, as supplied by regulation (article 427-2 of the code of felony process), the choose “can solely base its resolution on proof dropped at it throughout debates and contradictorily mentioned earlier than it”. The orality of the debates, sacred in the course of the felony trial, will not be assured.
All these arguments put finish to finish, the judges of Nanterre subsequently cancel the process. “It was the oldest file of the courtroom of Nanterresays Me Jean-Didier Belot. And it was unprecedented and scandalous: a gentleman in his hundredth yr, despatched again to courtroom; everybody knew that firstly he was already 80 years previous. The defendants might neither defend themselves nor bear in mind 20-year-old info. There could possibly be no trial for them.” The file has been within the fingers of seven completely different investigating judges, however the lawyer believes that “solely two labored”.
“Out of the 20 years, there have been six years the place work was executed and 14 years the place nothing occurred.”
Me Jean-Didier Belot, lawyer for one of many defendantsat franceinfo
9 months later, on September 15, 2021, the Court docket of Enchantment goes in the identical route. In its judgment, which franceinfo was in a position to seek the advice of, it considers “after noting that the process (…) violates the usual of an affordable time and irremediably undermines all of the ideas of the operation of felony justice, particularly respect for the rights of the protection and the principles of administration of proof, that it can’t itself take part on this violation by permitting the trial to proceed, devoid of any equity”.
Will the Court docket of Cassation, which is able to reserve its judgment, take into account process may be canceled for “unreasonable delay”, and if that’s the case underneath what circumstances, or will it keep the normal recourse to compensation with out canceling the process?
Till now, in circumstances of “unreasonable delays”, the investigations weren’t canceled, however a proper to compensation was open. The state paid damages for “malfunctioning of the general public service of justice”.
A supply on the Ministry of Justice joined by franceinfo confides that she is following this file carefully. Identical to many magistrates and attorneys. In river circumstances resembling these of asbestos, two selections in regards to the “Eternit” and “Condé-sur-Noireau” circumstances anticipated within the spring of 2022 had been postponed within the fall by the Paris Court docket of Enchantment, with out justification. formally however unofficially, in line with a lawyer, to take note of the choice of the Court docket of Cassation within the file of the “boiler room of the Protection”.
As well as, in February 2022, the Bobigny courtroom relied on the judgment of the Versailles Court docket of Enchantment of the “boiler room” to cancel a process. It was a trial for fraud in reference to the financial and social committee of AirFrance within the 1990s. Lately, two of the defendants have died and a 3rd suffers from Alzheimer’s. The courtroom thought of, within the judgment to which franceinfo had entry, that “the extreme size of the proceedings (…) irreparably undermined the rights of the defence”.
In shorter information, some attorneys don’t disguise their impatience and their curiosity within the listening to, this Thursday, on the Court docket of Cassation. For instance, within the file of Dr Péchier, this anesthetist from Besançon suspected of getting poisoned 24 sufferers, 9 of whom died, the suspect’s lawyer, Me Randall Schwerdorffer considers that the affordable time has been exceeded: “It has been greater than three years since he was heardhe explains. He was indicted in March 2017. He was banned from working, he was banned from the town the place he lived, he’s presumed harmless and but for seven years, eight years, there are dramatic penalties on his existence. “
“If Dr. Péchier is acquitted, the results of this delay shall be horrible. His skilled life and his private life may have been destroyed”
Mr. Randall Scwerdorffer, lawyer for Dr. Péchierat franceinfo
The lawyer denounces the indemnities “derisory” that the European Court docket of Human Rights condemns the French State to pay to those that problem the size of the proceedings. Convictions have gotten rarer, in line with Court docket statistics: prior to now ten years, France has solely been convicted thrice for extreme size of proceedings. One of many final occasions in 2018, she summoned France to pay eight,000 euros to a former elected Alsatian, Henri Goetschy, for non-pecuniary injury, when he claimed 1 million.
