By comparing from his very first words the horror of the fire in rue Erlanger (Paris 16e) to that of a ” terrorist attack “then classifying the arsonists among “those who most seriously disturb the social order” before remembering that ” since antiquity “these had always been “very severely punished”Rémi Crosson du Cormier set the tone: he was not going to require with tweezers.
Forty-five minutes later, at the end of a lightning indictment, Wednesday February 22, the Advocate General demanded from the jurors and the magistrates of the Paris Assize Court a sentence of twenty-seven years in prison, accompanied by a security period of two-thirds and fifteen years of socio-judicial follow-up with obligation of care against Essia Boularès, 44, four of whom have already been remanded in custody.
In the eyes of the company representative, the “extremely complex personality” of the accused and her thirty-four visits to a psychiatric hospital, the last of which a few days before the fatal fire on the night of February 4 to 5, 2019, are anecdotal given the seriousness of the tragedy, the ten dead, the dozens of traumatized injuries, and at risk of recurrence.
A “voluntary, vengeful and disproportionate action”
This “extremely complex personality” did not interest the Advocate General very much, who quickly passed over it and relied completely on the conclusions of the psychiatric experts, who considered that Essia Boularès’ discernment was “altered” at the time of the events – which allows jurors to hand down a slightly reduced sentence – but found her responsible for her actions and accessible to a criminal sanction.
“No delusional attitude”, “no hallucinations”, “no impulsive gesture” when setting the fire in front of the door of his neighbor on the landing who accused him of putting the music on too loudly and had come to knock violently on his door, but a “willful, vengeful and disproportionate action”an act of “uncontrolled anger exacerbated by his alcoholism”, according to the representative of the prosecution. To heavily condemn Essia Boularès, he explained, “it is not required that she was aware of creating a real danger”. She did not want to kill, she did not imagine causing such damage, of course. “But she took the risk. »
Opposite, under the frowning gaze of dozens of former neighbors of 17 bis, rue Erlanger massed on the benches of the public, Léa Hufnagel and Sébastien Schapira pleaded against “dehumanizing requisitions” and an “penalty of elimination” : “I think part of the room wants her to die in prison, and the requisitions that have been proposed to you are that project”launched the second.
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