"Disastrous investigation", "violated principles of law", "ethical misconduct" ... Since the announcement, Sunday, April 18, of the verdict of the appeal trial of young people accused of having burned police officers in Viry-Chatillon (Essonne), the The work of investigators has come under fire.
The Paris court of appeal for minors sentenced five of the thirteen defendants to terms of six to eighteen years in prison for the Molotov cocktail attack on four police officers in 2016.
The news caused incomprehension among the police, who expressed their anger on Tuesday.
To read also "We are not safe from a new Viry-Chatillon": the police officers of Essonne fear other attacks by young people
After nearly a month and a half of trial behind closed doors, the reasons for the acquittals remain opaque to public opinion.
The questioning of the investigation of the departmental security of Essonne is however one of the keystones.
According to our sources, two acquitted lawyers, Me Mauger-Poliak and Me Scemama & Stansal, are preparing to lodge a complaint with the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN) for "forgery in public writing by a person holding the law. 'public authority', confirming information from Mediapart.
A qualification punishable by 15 years imprisonment.
Me Frédérick Petipermon, lawyer for a man sentenced to 18 years in prison (20 were required), has already filed a complaint on March 11, 2021 with the Evry-Courcouronnes prosecutor's office.
He found "fraudulent alterations of the truth" in the minutes of the hearing of a key witness, who implicated his client.
A capital piece for defense.
"Pressure" and "blackmail"
By comparing with the tapes, Me Petipermon noted that certain remarks imputed to this witness “had not been made”.
"An
I am not sure
, orally, has been transformed into
I am sure
in writing," says Me Petipermon, who denounces "pressure and blackmail" exerted on this witness "so that he denounces the perpetrators ”, and“ flattery ”to“ encourage him to reveal ”.
This witness appears curiously, at the beginning of a hearing, provided with a "list of names written by hand", described by the police officers as that of the "attackers" envisaged on the attack of Viry-Chatillon.
"At the appeal hearing, he declared that this list was that of his acquaintances", nuance Me Petipermon, who seriously doubts the "spontaneity" of this enumeration.
“The writing of this list has never been filmed in hearing, deplores the lawyer.
When the camera resumes after its production, this witness is silent, seems very embarrassed.
As if he had been forced.
This hearing comes in a context of failure after failure for the investigators.
This witness was arrested with a sheet over his head, taken to the basement of a police station. This suggests more that there was construction of a means of proof rather than a finding.
"
The overwhelming transcripts of hearings
In addition to some pressure, defense lawyers were surprised to hear, on several occasions, the police insult the defendants during the hearing.
"Do you want to pass for the king of motherfuckers in front of the whole of France?"
One of them asks a suspect, at the time a minor and without a lawyer.
"Me, for thirty years, I will be easy, I will have my little wife that I fuck ***** quietly while you, you will be there
(Editor's note: in prison)
", continues this investigator in a hearing of the January 17, 2017. "You will have plenty of time to polish your c ******* for thirty years", he launches to her, when he does not speak to her about the "c ** of his fellow prisoner ”.
According to the transcripts of the hearings, the investigator often slips, treats the suspect of "fucking ball wanker", "fucking mytho", "little shit".
"You would sell your mother, the poor thing is dead, but you would sell her if you had to sell her," he said on January 18, 2017, provoking the anger of the accused.
According to our information, his counsel, Me Frank Berton, sent a report on April 6 to the IGPN.
In this document, the lawyer underlines “ethical faults” and an “abuse of authority”.
"As regards acts committed against members of the national police, it was necessary for the investigators to show strict impartiality in the conduct of this investigation, which was clearly not the case", underlines Me Berton.
"Flawed" procedure
During this trial, the work of "security" continued to be abused.
At the hearing, doubt would have settled permanently during the viewing of the hearings of the defendants, the entirety of whose remarks did not correspond to the minutes drafted by the investigators, described as "extremely brief" by the defense.
“For my client, there were only 15 pages of transcription, while having access to that of the recording tapes by bailiff, there were 245!
is astonished Me Sarah Mauger-Poliak, lawyer of an acquitted.
The procedure is flawed.
"
For Me Arnaud Simonard, lawyer for another acquitted, “the frantic search for culprits led to the worst: falsified statements, medieval pressure to obtain confessions, threats of extraordinary vulgarity, illegal promises.
If the custody had not been filmed, how many defendants would have been convicted on the basis of falsified reports?
"
"Dealing with a case on his close colleagues, it is undoubtedly too much emotion"
"There was too much media and political pressure around the investigators," said Me Mauger-Poliak.
I'm not questioning their competence, but dealing with a case about his close colleagues, it was undoubtedly too much emotion.
We should have relocated this investigation.
"
VIDEO.
An "unbearable" verdict for the burnt policemen
Me Laurent-Franck Liénard, lawyer for one of the police victims, agrees: "It was a file for a criminal brigade
(Editor's note: of the Regional Directorate of the Judicial Police - PJ- of Versailles)
with robust investigators".
Should the business be relocated?
“Not sure, nuance a legal source.
The facts are played out on a very precise geographical area, delimited, it was necessary to have knowledge of the bands and the places.
It's very local, and there's nothing to say the PJ investigators wouldn't have cracked under national pressure.
"
The Director General of the National Police supports the departmental security teams
According to our information, the director general of the national police, Frédéric Veaux, was to go this Thursday morning to the headquarters of the departmental security to support the investigators.
"I will not accept that this case becomes the trial of the police, or worse of the police officers who made this investigation", he reacted to AFP on Wednesday, stressing an "extremely difficult" investigation.
Same story with the police unions of Essonne.
"The investigators had to work with the law of silence in the district", reacts Claude Carillo, Alliance 91. "We are turning the situation, regrets Guillaume Roux, Unit-SGP.
We must recontextualize: in 2016, it is the beginning of the movement of angry police officers, there is enormous pressure.
"
The methods of the police?
“It's like asking a mechanic to get out of the car wearing white gloves,” says Claude Carillo.
“Of course we can use stratagems, concedes Me Petipermon, but does the end justify the means?
"
Three men sentenced to 18 years' imprisonment on appeal appealed to the Supreme Court.
