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Conflans attack: Jean-François Ricard, the voice of justice

2020-10-23T04:28:26.649Z


THE PARISIAN WEEKEND. The day after Samuel Paty's death, we saw him deliver the first elements of the investigation to journalists. U


For a long time, Jean-François Ricard lived in the shadows.

In that, first, of the Saint-Eloi gallery, the bunker of the anti-terrorism judges, wedged under the eaves of the old courthouse in Paris, on the Ile de la Cité, and whose small windows did not offer hardly any clarity.

In the shadows, too, of the Admiral, the nickname of the media judge Jean-Louis Bruguière, with whom he shared the referrals of sensitive cases and who has remained his friend.

Today, at 64, he is in the spotlight.

Saturday, October 17, when it takes place at 3 p.m. behind the desk installed in room 0.01, on the ground floor of the new judicial tribunal of Paris, in the Batignolles district, a swarm of cameras, cameras and microphones are waiting for him.

Behind their TV and radio sets, the French discover the man who was appointed prosecutor of the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office (PNAT) at its creation, in July 2019, by the former Minister of Justice.

Nicole Belloubet, now replaced by Eric Dupond-Moretti, wanted to make this body "a strike force" against terrorism which continues to mourn France.

The style is sober, the hour is serious.

Gray suit, white shirt and mauve tie, Jean-François Ricard adjusts his protective mask under his glasses.

It is up to him to give details of the profile of the young assailant who beheaded, the day before, Samuel Paty, a history and geography professor at the college of Bois-d'Aulne, in Conflans-Saint-Honorine (Yvelines).

A terrible act committed on this teacher because he had shown some of his students caricatures of the prophet Muhammad, published in 2006 in the satirical newspaper "Charlie Hebdo", during a civic education course - the trial of the killings of "Charlie Hebdo", Montrouge and Hyper Cacher, in January 2015, has been held in Paris since September.

"A discreet, respectful, meticulous man"

The anti-terrorism prosecutor does not tremble.

"It is a teacher who was attacked, but also freedom of expression."

The voice is a little weak, but firm.

For thirteen minutes, the magistrate distills the few information he wishes to communicate on the investigation he is conducting.

A square intervention, without authorization given to journalists to ask him questions.

A speech in his image.

VIDEO.

Conflans attack: the killer asked college students to identify the professor

"He is a very respectful of procedure and secrecy, extremely meticulous," underlines criminologist Alain Bauer.

He absolutely does not say more things than is necessary to share.

“Also a security consultant, he has known Jean-François Ricard for a long time.

“I have a lot of respect for him because, with Jean-Louis Bruguière, they wrote the first intelligent analysis note, in 1998, on a terrorist phenomenon that was changing.

Namely the mutation of a demand for political power, such as the Armed Islamist Group, the Islamic Salvation Front or the Islamic Salvation Army were doing in Algeria for a claim for spiritual power.

"Intended for Jacques Chirac, then President of the Republic, the famous note had alerted, according to Alain Bauer, the public authorities" at a time when nobody had seen anything.

"He's a friend, we worked for more than ten years together," confirms Jean-Louis Bruguière, now retired.

He is indeed someone discreet, who has considerable work power, a very rigorous lawyer.

"

The attacks and armed groups, he knows

Jean-François Ricard, from a bourgeois family in Boulogne-Billancourt (Hauts-de-Seine), son of a prefect, applied to become PNAT prosecutor after ten years at the head of the Military Criminal Affairs Division or at the Court of Cassation - "a post that annoyed him", smiles a relative.

Facing the Superior Council of the Magistracy, responsible for hearing the eleven declared candidates (including former judge Marc Trévidic), he refined his arguments.

Armed groups, he knows.

Basques, Corsicans ... It is not about to forget the attacks at RER stations Saint-Michel and Port-Royal, in 1995 and 1996, where it was necessary to count the bolts placed in the gas cylinders used as bombs, the identification of the Gang of Roubaix, close to Al-Qaeda, or the investigations against the terrorist Carlos, whose trial was held in 2013. His viaticum?

"A successful anti-terrorism justice is a justice that prevents," he said in 2019, when he was appointed.

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Today, Jean-François Ricard has decided to follow in the footsteps of François Molins, the former Paris prosecutor, known for his precise and lively press points after each attack, especially those of 2015. The accent of the Pyrenees -Oriental less.

Jean-François Ricard, the discreet man, will have to get used to the light.

This Wednesday, October 21, he again appeared in front of the microphones to detail the roles attributed to each suspect in the assassination of Samuel Paty.

His office at the Paris court, whose floor is not communicated for security reasons, has a view of the capital. A refined room, simply furnished with white leather sofas. "The power of work, motivation, courage above all, assures Jean-Claude Kross, former judge who was trained by the new anti-terrorism prosecutor. He's the right man for the job. "

Source: leparis

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