2023-07-25 01:10:59
The words of the Director General of the National Police, Frédéric Veaux, aroused strong reactions. The latter estimated in our columns that a police officer had “no place in prison” before a trial, “even if he may have committed serious faults or errors in the course of his work”.
This statement follows the indictment and provisional detention of a Marseille police officer last Friday. He and three of his colleagues are suspected of having shot a 21-year-old young man with a flash-ball and then of having beaten him on the night of July 1 to 2, on the sidelines of the riots which set Marseille on fire.
What is pre-trial detention?
After the opening of an investigation, the investigating judge may request the remand in custody of the person under investigation at the request of the public prosecutor’s office, that is to say his imprisonment pending judgment. The decision is up to the judge of freedoms and detention or JLD, a magistrate who intervenes to authorize certain investigative measures that are particularly prejudicial to the freedom of the defendant: searches, extension of police custody, authorization of telephone tapping, etc.
Four possibilities are offered to the JLD. He can decide to leave the defendant free, to place him under judicial control (the defendant’s movements and actions are strictly regulated), to place him under house arrest with electronic surveillance or in pre-trial detention.
In what cases is it decided?
“The latter is decided if the JLD considers that keeping the defendant free entails a risk of repetition of the facts, pressure on witnesses or victims, disappearance of evidence…”, lists William Julié, lawyer at the Paris bar. It can also be decided in the event of a risk of consultation between the defendant and the co-perpetrators.
In this specific case, it would seem that it was this last reason that motivated the prosecution to request the provisional detention of the four officials involved. Only one was ultimately taken into custody.
The Alliance and Unsa Police unions believe, on the contrary, that it was not necessary to place this official in pre-trial detention because the police present, according to them, “all the guarantees of representation to respond to all the demands of justice in their regard”. Understand: they are at the disposal of justice and do not risk sabotaging the investigation.
How long does it last?
“Its duration varies according to the qualification selected”, recalls William Julié. “In criminal matters, the initial period of detention is four months”. It can be extended twice for a period of four months each time. “The detention may be lifted at any time by the investigating judge, the JLD or the investigating chamber on appeal,” adds the lawyer.
In cases related to the use of a weapon by a police officer, the decision to place a member of the police in pre-trial detention is rather rare and almost always arouses the indignation of some of the unions in the sector. During the Michel Zecler case, a music producer beaten up in November 2020 in Paris, two of the four police officers involved had been placed in pre-trial detention. The Alliance union had at the time estimated that justice “gave in” to “politico-media pressure”.
“No one in the Republic is above the law”, recalled Emmanuel Macron this Monday during his speech in Nouméa (New Caledonia). “Themselves (the police and the gendarmes) fall within the framework of the law and the rule of law”, he added, welcoming in passing the work of the police during the riots.
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