Justice at a run
Four courtrooms, dozens of cases, a police report as the only evidence.
· N° 5
In the hall of the Paris court on Monday, the queue stretches outside room 6.01. Parents, friends, lawyers in their robes, and a lot of young people. Since 17 October, 2,513 people have been taken into custody, according to the authorities. The court opened four fast-track courtrooms at once, against one or two on a normal day.
Victor B. is 21, a film student with no criminal record. The police accuse him of building a barricade and throwing projectiles while shouting “Acab”. He says he only moved a plank lying on a burning bin, and carried a smoke flare “for a short film”. No camera, no witness: the police officers’ report alone. The prosecutor asked for five months in prison with immediate detention. The court handed down six months suspended.
« Is that the weapons? A mask and a smoke flare? »Victor B.’s lawyer, 21, at the Paris court, quoted by France 24
A plank, a flare, five months requested
Moustafa D., 18, was arrested with seven pairs of sunglasses picked up from the ground, “I didn’t know it was theft”: prison requested, ten months suspended. One lawyer, quoted by franceinfo: “They need blood after this weekend’s excesses.”
Gérald Darmanin welcomes the 149 “rioters and looters” now in jail and the more than 800 people sent to court. Four cases have already been thrown out for procedural flaws. When a court judges the next day on the word of the police alone, who still checks?