The prosecution chose Tuesday, November 30 to rely on the wisdom of the court in the trial of two captains of the gendarmerie tried before the Paris criminal court for moral harassment against a lieutenant of their brigade who was was killed in his office of a Cher brigade in 2013.
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"Personally, I am not completely convinced of the guilt of the two defendants,"
said the prosecutor in his requisitions. The two officers were judged in direct citation for "moral harassment" and "not assistance to person in danger".
"Moral harassment is difficult to characterize from a criminal point of view,"
said the prosecutor who considered that "
these elements are not established for the benefit of the doubt"
. He considered that there was no element of guilt for the second count, still
“for the benefit of the doubt”
. The decision was put under advisement as of January 25.
Lieutenant Grégory Girard was killed with his service weapon on November 1, 2013 in his office at the Saint-Amand-Montrond gendarmerie, leaving a letter, read at the hearing, where he called into question the captains Mickaël D. (now captain) and his deputy Bruno G. (still captain).
Present at the bar, the two officers, dressed in civilian clothes, defended having sought to
“humiliate”
the then 30-year-old lieutenant.
They explained that they were seeking
"to help him progress"
,
"to support him"
.
“It was educational,”
said Mickaël D.
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The two officers in question visited their direct subordinate or sometimes summoned him
"twice a day"
. Me Julien Kahn, lawyer for the lieutenant's family, denounced a
"relentlessness"
.
"They were constantly on the lieutenant's back and did not let go,"
said a witness called by the president of the court. In his letter, Lieutenant Girard, described by the court as
"a brilliant intellectual"
, from the university and keen on history, complained that his two superiors spoke to him
"as if
he were
unable to
distinguish
between things. "
.
"We insult
(by email or aloud)
my gendarmes, and myself incidentally,"
wrote the lieutenant, almost unanimously appreciated by his men according to several testimonies read at the hearing.
After the lieutenant's death, an investigation was opened by the General Inspectorate of the National Gendarmerie which considered that the offense of moral harassment had not been established.
Seized in turn of the case, the public prosecutor's office of Bourges had closed without continuation in July 2014. The defense asked for the release.