The student behind the affair at the Parisian Maurice-Ravel high school, which led to death threats against the principal of the establishment and then his early retirement, is not done with it Justice. While her own complaint, for violence not resulting in incapacity for work, was dismissed, she is in turn targeted by a complaint emanating from... the State. Wednesday evening, on TF1, Gabriel Attal made the announcement himself, specifying that the authorities were going to file a complaint for "slanderous denunciation" against the young woman, who had accused the principal of her high school of having been assaulted after her refusal to remove her veil.
A response worthy of the media coverage the affair received, and which takes place in a particular context. Six months after the assassination of Dominique Bernard in a high school in Arras, the story of Maurice-Ravel, fortunately less tragic, also echoes the death of Samuel Paty, this teacher from Conflans-Sainte-Honorine given over to vindictiveness Islamist and killed by a terrorist in 2020. The Prime Minister, who received the principal on Wednesday afternoon, also made reference to it on TF1 in the evening. “We see, there is a form of Islamist entryism which manifests itself in particular in our educational establishments,” he declared. “This entryism, these attacks recently caused two victims in the National Education family, Dominique Bernard and Samuel Paty,” he added.
Also read Paris: two complaints, the principal threatened with death... What we know about the blocking of the Maurice-Ravel high school
What will happen now? Florence Rouas, a lawyer at the Paris Bar whose specialty is juvenile law, explains that “the prosecutor will now open a preliminary investigation to understand what happened”. He will hear the protagonists as well as the witnesses, and perhaps even the entourage of the actors in the story. He will then decide whether or not to prosecute the young woman, who could
ultimately
be judged by a court.
In fact, according to article 226-10 of the Penal Code, the young woman could risk up to five years of imprisonment and a fine of 45,000 euros for slanderous denunciation. This qualification is distinguished from insult and defamation, which are less severely punished. For there to be slanderous denunciation, a fact “likely to result in judicial, administrative or disciplinary sanctions and which is known to be totally or partially inaccurate” must have been reported “to a judicial or police officer.” administrative or judicial (…), to an authority having the power to follow up on it or to refer the matter to the competent authority (or) to the hierarchical superiors or to the employer of the person denounced.” In this case, the high school student did file a complaint for violence.
Furthermore, “the falsity of the denounced act necessarily results from the decision, which has become final, of acquittal, acquittal or dismissal, declaring that the act was not committed or that it is not attributable to the person denounced,” specifies the Penal Code. In the case of the Ravel high school, the dismissal of the student's complaint therefore authorizes the State's second complaint.
Questioned by RTL before the announcement of the complaint filed against her, the high school student assured that she condemned the death threats, while maintaining her version of the story. Like the principal, she has since left the establishment.