Ten days after the tragedy, the family of the fifty-year-old prisoner stepped up to the plate. On August 2, a former teacher, who, according to his lawyer, suffered from depression, committed suicide in his cell at the Baumettes prison in Marseille, where he was in pre-trial detention, we learned on Wednesday evening from corroborating sources. His family, who believes that the alerts on his depressive state have not been taken into account, wants to file a complaint for manslaughter and non-assistance to a person in danger, said his lawyer, Me Louise Lanata, confirming information from the newspaper La Marseillaise.
This 51-year-old former math teacher was "discovered dead by hanging" on Sunday August 2 in Les Baumettes where he had been imprisoned since July 1 awaiting trial, the Marseille prosecutor's office and the prison administration said. from the Provence-Alpes-Côte D'Azur region.
Flat tires and a recurrence
"An investigation to search for the causes of death is open," said Marseille prosecutor Dominique Laurens. The fifty-year-old was accused of having punctured his physiotherapist's tires seven times between May and June. The man, who because of his depression had been declared unfit and had taken early retirement five years ago, was being prosecuted for "damage and possession of weapons", according to a source close to the investigation.
At the end of his police custody on June 26, he was left free and placed under judicial supervision, explains his lawyer. But two days later, he reiterated the facts and was arrested by neighbors. During his second police custody, the man who admitted the facts and explained these actions by "obsessive-compulsive disorders", reports Me Lanata, was this time placed in pre-trial detention in early July.
Suicide risk monitoring implemented
A psychiatric expertise "which, as too often, could not take place quickly", should have been examined during a release hearing on July 28. But on that date, the man had still not been examined by a psychiatrist and had been kept in detention, lamented his lawyer.
The examination of the case had been postponed until the end of August 2020, according to the prosecution. "My client could not bear to go back to prison and did not understand this decision," lamented Me Lanata. The lawyer explains having alerted the court at the hearing "of the risk of suicide", which would have replied, "that he would not give in to suicide blackmail". "My son was the tragic victim of a succession of incompetence, mistakes and insensitivity", for his part denounced his father to the Marseillaise. According to the local daily, during his time in court, her son had left the cubicle throwing his head against a partition and had to have stitches.
His lawyer also recounted having noticed, during a visit to the parlor, that he had slashed his forearms. According to La Provence, the former professor's fellow detainee would also have indicated that he thought that the latter was going to take action. "This detainee had reported a depressive state and a follow-up had been set up," said the Marseille prosecutor.
