“
All these years I was innocent.
Farid E., 41, was convicted in 2003 by the Assize Court for minors in Douai for "
rape
" and "
sexual assault
", but has always maintained his innocence.
Twenty years later, the Court of Revision examines her request for rehabilitation on Thursday, the complainant having since retracted.
Attacked by "three or four Arabs"
The case, revealed by our colleagues from
Le Monde
, started in December 1988 in the North.
A 15-year-old high school student, Julie D., filed a complaint to denounce two sexual assaults and a rape of which she was allegedly the victim by "
three or four Arabs
", including a certain Farid.
The first time, the young girl would have been dragged in an alley then touched in "
the chest, the legs, the stomach
".
The second time, the facts would have happened in the street “
behind the swimming pool
”: “
They pushed me to the ground, Farid lifted my dress and took off my panties.
He started to caress my sex, introducing his finger, I was in a little pain
, ”she told the investigators.
Farid, then 17 years old, was arrested, placed in police custody but categorically denied the charges.
“
It's not true!
It's impossible.
I have never jumped a girl.
I've never had sex!
The gendarme who signs the report points to his “
aggressive and arrogant behavior.
The teenager is indicted and then placed in pre-trial detention.
He did not come out of prison until nearly a year later.
In 2003, he appeared before the Assize Court for Minors in Douai, which sentenced him to five years' imprisonment, including four years and two months suspended.
His parents are also ordered to pay 17,000 euros in damages to the victim.
The story could have ended there.
But in 2017, the complainant, who is now 34 and a mother, wrote a letter to the public prosecutor of Douai to reconsider her remarks: “
During a trial which took place at the Assize Court of Douai, in 2003, I confess to having lied to you.
Mr. Farid E. is not guilty of anything and has never committed acts of sexual assault or rape on my person.
I wish today to restore the truth.
I am aware of the seriousness of my actions and locked myself in a powerful denial during all these years.
»
A rehabilitation for “honor”
In reality, Julie D. says she was raped by her older brother between the ages of 8 and 12 but fell into a form of denial, preferring to accuse a third party so as not to break the family unit.
She recounts having had great difficulty in maintaining her version during the trial, facing the family of the accused:
“I thought to myself that they believed their son to be guilty.
And that one family paid instead of another.
During all these years, Farid, since father of two children, is registered with the files of the sexual delinquents (Fijaisv).
Today, his mother and father "
are in a very serious state of health, they are in palliative care
", he explained to the thirteen magistrates of the Court of Cassation gathered this Thursday morning to study his request for rehabilitation. .
“
I just wish they could hear that I'm innocent.
Even if they never doubted me
, ”he said in tears, according to a BFMTV journalist on Twitter.
Julie D.'s lawyer praised her client's courage: “
I want to talk about my client's courage.
My client was locked in her lie but also in the incest she suffered in her family.
For his part, Farid's lawyer, Lille criminal lawyer Franck Berton, ordered the court to "
quickly restore his honor and dignity
” to his client.
The decision was reserved for Thursday, December 15.
