"When politics enters the courtroom, it is justice that leaves. We are not here to discuss morality or ideological issues, but to judge whether there has been a criminal offence. From the outset, Guillaume Servant, the president of the criminal court, framed the debates: it will be law and nothing but law. And in the middle, camped behind the desk of the courtroom, a fifty-year-old without history who seems a little overwhelmed by the judicial arm wrestling that was played this Thursday at the criminal court of Meaux.
Lydia, 55, a mother of five, found herself in the dock for the first time. President of Cat and Co, based in Coubert, she was prosecuted for breach of trust. His wrong: to have stubbornly refused to return to their owner the animals that had been entrusted to him despite the injunctions of the Meaux prosecutor's office.
The public prosecutor Jean-Baptiste Bladier, who heads the Meaux prosecutor's office, was also present to represent the public prosecutor. He did not hide that it was a "fight of principle that deserved to be fought" to explain why he wanted this animal defender to appear before the criminal court. A court and a prosecutor's office that are a bit like cat and dog with animal protection associations, including the association Stéphane Lamart, named after its president and founder.
The case that has caused the president of Cat and Co her legal hassle dates back to last summer. On July 10, Lydia was informed by neighbours that animals on a plot of land in Bernay-Vilbert showed worrying signs of abuse. Worse, a kid is found dead.
She warns the gendarmes, who go to the site. Faced with the situation, they alert the Meaux prosecutor's office, which then entrusts Lydia and her association with the animals in question, namely a donkey, three goats and four goats. "They were emaciated, weak, thirsty and sick," she describes to the bar, still moved. An observation that seems to be shared by the veterinarians who will examine them. An investigation is opened. However, at the beginning of August, the prosecutor's office decided to close the case. And then asks Lydia to give the animals back to their owner. This she refuses to do, arguing that it was necessary to wait for a judgment of the court.
"But madam, it is not you who do justice," insists President Servant. You don't do justice yourself in France. When you are told to return the animals, you give them back. It is not self-service. Today, there will be no decision on abuse or abandonment. This is a non-issue. The prosecutor, who has striven not to deviate from the law, drives the nail in. "You can't work with an occasional employee of the public justice services who is an activist and that's not an insult. You cannot be judge and jury. »
A citizenship internship to be completed within six months
"Even today, my arms are falling," says Jean-Baptiste Bladier. I remind you that we had to send you the gendarmes. In September, faced with her repeated refusals, Lydia found herself placed in police custody. The fifty-year-old had nevertheless written to the prosecutor general to contest. "Curiously, the Meaux prosecutor's office has decided to reopen an investigation," said Patrice Grillon, the defense lawyer. For nearly an hour, he tried to demonstrate Lydia's "courage", raising many legal arguments to convince the court to release his client. In vain.
The latter rather followed the requisitions of the prosecutor, who demanded "a conviction of principle", namely a citizenship course and 2,000 euros suspended fine for Lydia, as well as 1,000 euros including 500 euros suspended for her and the association.
In the end, she receives a citizenship internship to be completed within six months under penalty of being sentenced to two months in prison. And the court ordered her and the association to post the decision in front of the entrance to the courthouse, as well as in the newspaper at her own expense. All with provisional enforcement, that is, the sentence must be served, even if there is an appeal. This should undoubtedly intervene as Mr. Grillon had mentioned in his pleadings.
The battle is not over, especially since the owner of the animals is finally to be tried this autumn before the police court. For the beasts, the story is practically closed. They all died, except for two goats.