Julien Ruas, former deputy to the former mayor of Marseille Jean-Claude Gaudin, announced Monday, November 23 through the voice of his lawyers his intention to appeal his indictment in the investigation into the collapse of two buildings in 2018 which killed eight people.
Read also: Unsanitary buildings: situation still precarious in Marseille
“
The indictment of Mr. Ruas was made under conditions which do not appear to us to be in accordance with the law.
The haste of the prosecution to communicate on this subject, in defiance of the elementary principle of presumption of innocence, attests to a certain desire to justify an eminently questionable procedure
, ”write his lawyers in a press release, confirming information from
La Provence
.
"
We will form a nullity appeal on the validity of the summons of the indictment
" by Julien Ruas "
who is perfectly innocent
", write Olivier Pardo, Benjamin Mathieu, Jérémie Nataf and Erick Campana.
Almost two years to the day after the tragedy, the Marseille prosecutor's office announced Thursday the indictment of the elected representative of the heads of manslaughter by deliberate violation, involuntary injuries by deliberate violation, deliberate endangerment of others.
He was in the previous LR executive, in particular in charge of risk prevention and management.
Two other indictments were pronounced within the framework of this instruction, that of the trustee of the co-ownership of 65 rue d'Aubagne, the only one of the two buildings which was occupied at the time of the disaster, and that of the social landlord Marseille Habitat.
This semi-public company in the city of Marseille owned the second building which collapsed, located at 63 rue d'Aubagne and whose access was blocked in 2017.
The collapse of the two buildings in the popular hyper-center of Marseille on November 5, 2018 left eight people dead and highlighted the extent of the problem of unsanitary housing in the second city in France ruled for 25 years, until the last summer, by the mayor LR Jean-Claude Gaudin.
The latter gave his support to his former deputy last week, referring to "
an exemplary elected representative, by his dedication, his availability, and his listening
".
