Pedophilia scandals, terrorist attacks or even the tangles of the Fillon couple with the law ... Whether they last for weeks or only a few days, several emblematic trials will punctuate the judicial year 2020.
Father Preynat: the revelation of his pedophile acts shook the Church, and placed on the hot seat Cardinal Barbarin, sentenced last March to six months in prison suspended for not having denounced his actions (he appealed this judgment, the decision is expected on January 30). Father Preynat, 74, dismissed for sexual assaults committed on young scouts between 1986 and 1991, will be tried from January 13 to 17 before the correctional court of Lyon (Rhône).
The Fillon couple in court: the case had torpedoed their candidacy for the 2017 presidential election. François Fillon, his wife Pénélope and his former deputy at the national assembly Marc Joulaud will be tried from February 24 to March 11 before the Paris Criminal Court. In question: the fictitious jobs which would have benefited the wife of the former Prime Minister.
"Rape at 36": two police officers will be retried from March 16 to April 3 in Créteil for the alleged rape of a Canadian tourist, in 2014 at 36, quai des Orfèvres, historic headquarters of the Paris police. Both had appealed from their seven-year prison sentence handed down last January. They are accused of having abused the young woman after a very drunk evening in a neighborhood pub, but ensure that the relationship was agreed.
The pedophile surgeon: perhaps the largest predator ever exposed in France. The investigation into Joël Le Scouarnec, still ongoing, has already identified no less than 349 potential victims, of whom 197 have already filed complaints. This 70-year-old digestive surgeon, who worked in eighteen health establishments in the west of France, and recently in Jonzac (Charente-Maritime), will be tried at the assizes from March 13 to 17, in Saintes, for a first series of attacks. Locked up for two years, he will appear for rape and sexual assault on four victims, minors at the time of the events (two nieces, a patient and a neighbor), between 1993 and 2017.
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The January 2015 attacks: it is the first of the major terrorist trials, scheduled to last nine weeks, in Paris. In the absence of the protagonists, who died in the assaults given by the police, it is their supporters, to varying degrees, who will be judged. Fourteen people will appear for providing logistical assistance to the Kouachi brothers, authors of the shooting at Charlie Hebdo and Amedy Coulibaly, who had killed a policewoman in Montrouge (Hauts-de-Seine) and committed the murderous attack at the Hyper Kosher supermarket . Three of these people are on the run but presumed dead: Hayat Boumedienne, Coulibaly's partner, and two of the Belhoucine brothers who had fled with her to Syria a few days before the attacks. Ali Riza Polat, the main accused and close to Coulibaly, is on trial for his central role, including the supply of the weapons which were used by the jihadist trio. The trial will take place at the new Paris courthouse, in Batignolles, from May 4 to July 10, 2020.
Left or double for Fiona's mother: fourth trial for Cécile Bourgeon and her former companion Berkane Makhlouf. The remains of the 5-year-old girl, allegedly disappeared in a park in Clermont-Ferrand in May 2013, have never been found. Her mother and stepfather, tried for aggravated death, blame each other for the death of the 5-year-old girl. Acquitted of the criminal facts at first instance, Fiona's mother appears free after having obtained the annulment by the Court of Cassation of the verdict on appeal which had condemned her, like Berkane Makhlouf, to twenty years in prison. Initially scheduled for January, this new trial will finally be held from May 26 to June 12 at the Assises du Rhône, in Lyon.
