The Constitutional Council will look into the issue of reporting information from the prosecution to the Minister of Justice, at the heart of recurring debates on the independence of the judiciary, a judicial source reported to AFP on Friday.
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The Council of State transmitted to the “
Sages
” a priority question of constitutionality (QPC) raised by the League of Human Rights (LDH), deemed “
serious
”, according to a decision rendered Wednesday. The LDH had seized the highest administrative court in order to repeal the circulars of January 31, 2014 and October 1, 2020 on the feedback of information. In this context, the association raised a QPC on the conformity with the Constitution of two articles of the code of criminal procedure. These articles provide in particular for the transmission of an "
annual report on penal policy
" and "
special reports
" that prosecutors can establish "
either on their own initiative,either at the request of the Minister of Justice
".
The LDH considers that they do not constitute
sufficient "
legal guarantees
" to frame the mechanism, which undermines "
the independence of the judicial authority, the principle of separation of powers as well as the principle of equality before the justice
”.
The lawyer on the Council of the association, Me Patrice Spinosi, hailed a "
decisive stage victory
".
“
What the legislator did not dare to do in the bill on confidence in justice (carried by the Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti, Editor's note), the Constitutional Council will be able to impose on him.
This legal survival of a bygone era no longer meets modern demands for the impartiality of justice,
”said Mr. Spinosi.
In January, the Court of Cassation refused to transmit a QPC on the same subject raised in the investigation opened in Nanterre, in particular for tax evasion and embezzlement of public funds, targeting the LREM deputy Thierry Solère.
A 2013 law, passed by the Minister of Justice Christiane Taubira, prohibited the Chancellery from giving “
individual instructions
” to avoid any political interference in specific cases.
But the issue of information feedback comes up regularly over the course of resounding cases.
To read also: "The bill for" confidence in justice "does not provide a coherent and unified response to the challenges of the institution"
Voices have been rising for years to demand a strengthening of their supervision by law and, more broadly, a reform of the statute of the prosecution - under the authority of the Chancellery, unlike the magistrates of the seat. François Hollande then Emmanuel Macron had promised a change in the law concerning the appointment of prosecutors, but the reform was postponed indefinitely.
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