The Superior Council of the Magistracy (CSM) rebelled, this Sunday, against "the questioning" of justice in two "painful" cases, with reference to the challenge of the judgment of the Court of Cassation in the Sarah Halimi case and the verdict at the Viry-Châtillon trial.
"The judicial institution must be able to continue to judge, free from pressure, with complete independence and impartiality", writes the body in a press release, calling for "measure".
"With regard to the judgment of the Court of Cassation in the Halimi case, it should be remembered that the judge's mission is to apply the law and must, in criminal matters, interpret it strictly", recalls the CSM. “He cannot create or modify it. This is a fundamental principle for preserving democratic balances, ”insists the constitutional body, which guarantees the independence of the judicial authority.
On April 14, the Court of Cassation confirmed the criminal irresponsibility of the murderer of Sarah Halimi, a Jewish sexagenarian who was killed in 2017 in Paris. While endorsing the anti-Semitic nature of the crime, the highest judicial court had confirmed the abolition of the discernment of the murderer, taken from a "delirious puff" during the facts, according to seven experts consulted. This decision aroused great emotion and a very strong incomprehension within a part of the French Jewish community and pushed Emmanuel Macron to demand "a change of the law".
In accordance with the request of the President of the Republic, the government will present at the end of May in the Council of Ministers a bill to fill the legal vacuum which appeared in the Sarah Halimi affair.
This tragic story that has marked us all will advance our law.
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- Eric Dupond-Moretti (@E_DupondM) April 25, 2021
"Deep breach" of justice
Regarding the verdict of the Paris Assize Court ruling on appeal in the Viry-Châtillon case, the CSM recalls "that it was rendered by the judges and jurors after debates lasting several weeks". "The deliberate distortion of the remarks made by the representative of the prosecution and the denigration, in often outrageous terms, of the pronounced partial acquittals deeply undermine the authority which attaches to court decisions", writes the organ .
After six weeks of closed-door trials, five young people were sentenced on April 18 to terms ranging from six years to eighteen years in prison for attacking and burning police officers in Viry-Châtillon (Essonne) in 2016 Eight had been acquitted, sparking indignation among police unions and part of the political class. The attorney general of Paris, Catherine Champrenault, had denounced on April 21 an "attempt to destabilize the judicial institution" after the dissemination, by elected officials, of "erroneous remarks" attributed to the attorney general who requested the appeal trial . The Keeper of the Seals, Eric Dupond-Moretti, also defended this magistrate.