While the pleadings of the lawyers of the civil parties started this week at the trial of the Nice attack, the specially composed assize court accepted Thursday, November 24 five requests for the return of organs taken from the victims.
A decision welcomed as a release by some bereaved relatives.
“
So that the murdered innocents can finally rest in peace.
Their place is not under seal at the IML of the CHU Pasteur de Nice but in a burial according to the funeral rites of the families
”, reacted Anne Gourvès on Twitter, whose 12-year-old daughter was killed on the Promenade des Anglais .
The president of the court Laurent Raviot ordered the lifting of the seals on these samples and asked for their return to undertakers, for burial according to the wishes of the families.
173 organs removed
The day after the attack on July 14, 2016, the Forensic Institute (IML) of Nice received the bodies of the 86 victims.
Autopsies were carried out on 14 of them, when “
the cause of death was not completely obvious
”, explained to the hearing Doctor Quatrehomme, then at the head of the IML.
In the event of an autopsy, organs were systematically removed and placed under seal, in case subsequent questions related to the investigation required further analysis.
This was not the case for any victim.
Usually, forensic scientists only take a sample of each organ when possible, but after the attack, Gérald Quatrehomme gave verbal instructions to take the whole organs.
“
Given the context, the international aspect, the chaos that reigned, I decided that we would do an identical protocol for all autopsies
”, he had justified himself at the helm.
A total of 173 organs were removed.
"Overzealous"
Asked about the consequences for the integrity of the corpses and the impact for the families, he had defended himself from any failure: "
I had to make a lot of decisions in extreme urgency, in the midst of constant requests
".
He assured that his teams had taken maximum care to “
restore
” the appearance of the body.
The lawyer for a hundred civil parties, Me Virginie Le Roy, had questioned “
the consistency
” and “
the interest
” of such samples, such as the uterus of a 6-year-old girl.
"
The forensic doctors followed the protocol
", "
identical for all
", in a context of "
complicated logistics
", he had defended himself.
Read also“An immense chaos”: at the trial of the Nice attack, the delicate file of the identification and autopsies of the victims
The former public prosecutor of Paris François Molins, who came to testify at the bar in October, had recognized an error.
“
How to explain it... I don't want to accuse the Nice Forensic Institute, which has worked well
.
But there was an excess of zeal.
The lawyers wanted to do well but did something that was not justified.
“And to add:”
If it had to be done again, we would not have gone about it like that.
We lacked vigilance.
I say it and I assume it, there would have been no samples under these conditions, without wanting to sue Professor Quatrehomme, who acted in good faith.
»
The relatives of three victims, an American and his 11-year-old son as well as a 4-year-old child, had obtained the restitution of the organs taken quickly after the attack.
All the others were still under seal at the Nice forensic institute.
