A judicial center dedicated "to serial and unsolved crimes" will be launched on March 1 in Nanterre to "allow these cases to remain judicially alive", announced the Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti in an interview with 20 Minutes.
This pole, claimed for years by lawyers and families of victims, is provided for by law "strengthening confidence in the judicial institution".
The implementing decree should be published this week.
Obviously, several cases are emblematic such as the Grégory Villemin affair, this boy found dead in Vologne (Vosges) in 1984, the quadruple murder of Chevaline (Haute-Savoie) in 2012 or even the disappearance nineteen years ago of 'Estelle Mouzin.
But according to Eric Dupond-Moretti, no less than 240 cases in progress could be entrusted to the three investigating judges, the first vice-president and two vice-presidents who will integrate this pole devoted to "cold cases".
Sometimes "three or four magistrates who follow one another"
These magistrates will be "100% seconded" to this entity based in Nanterre, within the jurisdiction of the Versailles Court of Appeal. This new pole should allow these cases "to remain legally alive and to offer an answer to the victims", explains Éric Dupond-Moretti adding: "In the offices of investigation, the judges exercise for a limited time and are then replaced. by colleagues. We thus see in the very long files, the complex files, three or four magistrates which follow one another. "
However, "the passing of time is the worst enemy of the elucidation of a case, because sometimes the witnesses will live elsewhere, because the memory fades, for a thousand reasons", he explains. "From my experience as a lawyer, I was able to observe that the resolution of this type of crime was possible thanks to the obstinacy of an investigator or a magistrate and especially also thanks to the coordination between different services, in particular in cases where the perpetrator committed crimes in different locations. Without this work of connection between one crime and another, without an analysis of the author's modus operandi, we cannot resolve complex cases, ”he pleads.
In this pole, “the investigating magistrates will have all the freedom to continue with the initial investigators or to seize a service specializing in unsolved crimes, such as the Diane division in Pontoise.
A cosaisine with the initial investigators and the specialized services is also quite possible ”, he explains.
Concerning the conservation of seals, a sometimes key issue in the non-resolution of certain cases, the Minister indicates that "very particular attention will be paid both to the conservation of these parts but also to their use and their exploitation".