Two former soldiers, sentenced Friday in Bordeaux for desertion to two months' suspended imprisonment, denounced at the bar the regular use of
“gratuitous violence”
and humiliation within their regiment.
A third, who made similar accusations, was acquitted.
The defendants, aged around twenty and enrolled in the 1st Parachute Hussar Regiment of Tarbes, had unilaterally broken their commitment before the end of the five years provided for in their contract.
Prosecuted for
“internal desertion in time of peace”
, they faced three years in prison.
Taking turns at the bar, they claimed to have regularly received blows and suffered
“gratuitous”
humiliations from their superiors.
“We received blows with telescopic batons in the stomach... At first, I told myself that it was to toughen us up but over time, I saw that it made them happy, they were laughing
,” testified the one of them, his voice trembling, said he had soldiers in his family.
“They were smacking our butts”
He also denounced
"a swastika"
, carved on the back of his neck
"to make people laugh"
while his hair was shaved, and
"excessive consumption of alcohol and drugs"
, including
"driving on a mission"
, who
“disgusted”
him
with his two years spent in the army.
“Should he continue to accept this racist, sexist, anti-Semitic behavior, these perfectly archaic methods?”
, launched his lawyer, Maître Thibault Laforcade.
The other convicted ex-soldier said he had the feeling of being
“a Turk's head”
.
“They made us naked in the corridors, they slapped our butts before we went to sleep.
We were forced to drink oil.
All this for no reason
,” said the third, in tears, who stayed eight months in his regiment which he had joined at 19.
In court, he spoke
of “swastikas”
tattooed on several soldiers.
He was acquitted for having asked, at the start of his commitment, to leave the army with a promise of employment, a letter which remained unanswered.
Prosecutor Lydie Reiss, who had requested a two-month suspended sentence for the three defendants, noted
"elements of certain seriousness but little substantiated"
, except
"by two or three photos"
of bruises, without an identifiable face .
Ex-soldiers explained the absence of reports or medical consultations by
“fear of reprisals”
.
No military representatives attended the hearing.