An assessor of the special assize court who tried 12 men, two of whom are suspected of having planned an attack during the 2017 campaign, is ill. Due to a lack of available magistrates, she cannot be replaced.
The dismissal of the trial of twelve people before the special Assize Court of Paris is yet another example of the lack of means given to justice for years, while the profession continues to shout its fed up. The trial which judged Clément Baur and Mahiedine Merabet, suspected of having planned an attack during the presidential campaign of 2017, and 10 other people, was suspended and dismissed Thursday, for lack of available magistrates.
“I would like to present in my own name all my apologies for this situation which I find unacceptable”, declared Thursday Corinne Goetzmann, the president of the special assize court, before pronouncing the dismissal of the debates.
No substitute magistrate
The first alert was given on Monday. That day, as the trial began its fourth week of debates and the court was about to address the last part, the president of the special assize court, composed only of professional magistrates, had warned that an assessor was unwell. She had to suspend the proceedings until Thursday morning, the time to find out if the magistrate could recover in order to attend the end of the trial, before returning the proceedings to a later date. The judge could not take her place, and no one could replace her.
“For this magistrate to be replaced, a replacement assessor would have had to be provided from the start of the trial, explains Me Raphaël Kempf, the lawyer for one of the accused Mahiedine Merabet. To judge, they must have attended the trial. whole of the debates.”
Corinne Goetzmann explained to the various parties that she had asked, during the organization of this terrorist trial, for a substitute assessor. A request that had been refused. She therefore deplored Thursday “the lack of means of justice”. “It is inadmissible that we are presented with the fait accompli of the inability of the judicial institution to deal with a trial of such magnitude and such gravity,” said the magistrate.
“This situation gives a deplorable image of the judicial institution, deplores Me Kempf. These facts have been described as very serious and we are not in a position to make a judgment correctly.”
“It is perfectly scandalous that an additional assessor has been refused to the president of the assize court, abounds Me Nicolas Brillatz, who defends, with Me Paul Faucon, Clément Baur, also accused of association of terrorist criminals. He seems to me that this trial was considered important since we managed to put important security conditions in place, we made the choice to have the facts judged by five professional magistrates.
No new hearing date set
In concrete terms, no date could be set for a re-hearing of this trial, as the Assize Court sessions were already full. “Originally, our client should have been fixed on his fate on February 3. Today, on February 3, he will not even know when he will be judged. Psychologically, the consequences are very harsh”, denounces Me Nicolas Brillatz .
“Our client had prepared for this trial, he had worked to reveal his privacy in front of the court, in front of the room”, continues the council.
Me Nicolas Brillatz fears that the second trial is “artificial”. “The same questions will be asked again, he continues. What we thought acquired during the debates, we will have to fight at a new hearing.” “We are breaking a dynamic, that of participating in the work of justice”, regrets Me Raphaël Kempf, recalling that his client agreed to speak from the first day of his trial.
Thursday, the lawyer pleaded for a request for the release of Mahiedine Merabet, imprisoned for six years, a name in particular of the reasonable time to be judged. The special assize court rejected this request.
