For the first time in Rouen, criminal proceedings canceled due to “unreasonable delay”
By Jean-Baptiste Morel
Published on
“Unreasonable delays”, which “prevent confrontation”, generating an “impossibility to exercise the right to defense” for several defendants. Tuesday, February 22, 2022, the judicial court of Rouen (Seine-Maritime) pronounced an annulment of criminal proceedings, on the grounds of unreasonable time.
An unprecedented decision in this court, but which had already been pronounced, according to defense lawyers, at least four times in France, and which largely echoes the problems of “glaring lack of means” denounced by many magistrates in recent months, in Rouen as elsewhere.
At 2:15 p.m. on February 22, four men and a woman had to compare for having helped, assisted, protected the prostitution of a dozen young women. Facts that occurred between 2012 and 2013, but which were not even mentioned during the hearing.
A defendant who became a paraplegic
And for good reason, the four lawyers for the defendants present (the accused woman was not present or represented at the hearing) jointly demanded the cancellation of the procedure, on the grounds of nullity: “How do you want to defend yourself? faced with a procedure that has taken too long? »
Relying on Article 6 of the European Convention, according to which “everyone has the right to have his case heard within a reasonable time”, the defense has striven to eliminate the delay between the facts and the trial , about ten years old, was unreasonable. Thus it relied on the fact that one of the defendants was not present, that there was no civil party either, but also and above all that one of the defendants could not be physically present, having become a paraplegic in 2020 after a car accident.
Said absentee was also, add the lawyers, a key element of the debates which should have opened, in a trial which should have been held long before his accident occurred. On his testimony depended in particular the degree of involvement of one of the other defendants. Finally, the defense supported its request for annulment of the procedure by several case law, at least four throughout the country, during correctional judgments which had also experienced delays.
The public prosecutor, for his part, considers that the rights of the defense have been respected. And calls on the court to reject the request for annulment.
“Inability to exercise their right to defence”
Having retired for an hour, a much longer period than usual, the court considered that the “reasonable time” had been exceeded, and all the more so for a case “without particular complexity”, noting “the impossibility” for the defendants “to exercise their right to defence”, in particular because of the accident which made one of them paraplegic.
Too slow justice, too few magistrates, bottleneck procedures… it is a substantial file, an important investigation and a trial which could have lasted the afternoon which, in the space of two hours, has therefore quite simply has been cancelled. “Maybe this is a good way to shake things up? “, comments Maître Patrick Chabert, lawyer in this procedure of the man who has become paraplegic.
The prosecutor can now appeal, within ten days.
Was this article helpful to you? Note that you can follow 76actu in the My News space. In one click, after registration, you will find all the news of your favorite cities and brands.