This is a status that is still little used. And even less for the “little hands” of drug trafficking. So much so that the Minister of Justice Éric Dupond-Moretti is working on a reform, to make the use of “repentants” – in the texts, “collaborators of justice” – more effective in the fight against organized crime. The principle ? A system, inspired by what can be done in the United States or Italy, where participants in criminal activities agree to cooperate with the judicial or police authorities. In exchange, they obtain different advantages, which range from exemption and reduction of sentence to a new identity.
The reform could include a “specific repentant status” for “nannies”, “very often single mothers who have acted under financial or physical duress” to store drugs at home, indicated the Secretary of State responsible for the City Sabrina Agresti-Roubache.
Statements in line with those of the Minister of Justice, for whom we must “come out of silence”: “We are calling on the bigwigs, but we must encourage the nannies and the parents of the children recruited to act as lookouts, those who enter this traffic, who are not wet up to their necks, to speak, he declared in March on RMC. For that, they must be protected when they do it. This is one of the keys to success in fighting against the bigwigs who control the traffic in Marseille. »
“We know the treatment reserved for poucaves”
At this idea, Amine Kessaci, EELV political activist and president of the Conscience association, created with the aim of improving the living conditions of residents of disadvantaged neighborhoods in France, is more than skeptical: “We have clearly understood that the role of the government is to put the blame on mothers, but this responsibility is not ours. » “Magistrates, in Marseille, are sounding the alarm, reporting a lost war against drug trafficking and we are still part of a repressive logic,” he adds, calling to “listen to people who live there” and “to do differently”. Starting with “bringing back the local police. »
For his book Women and drugs, the sociologist and coordinator of the TREND system (recent trends and new drugs) in New Aquitaine) Sarah Perrin looked at the trajectories of socially integrated user-dealers in Bordeaux and Montreal. She also spoke with police officers. “If they are under duress, women can be a source of useful information for the police, provided that there is real protection of the sources. We know the treatment reserved for poucaves (scales), so there is a risk. »
However, the researcher does not believe in a specific repentant status for nannies, describing this response as “electoral politics”, instead of considering avenues such as the legalization of cannabis. “We ask nannies to speak, in doing so we accentuate gender, racial and social inequalities and we will not put an end to trafficking,” she adds. And I doubt that a nanny from Marseille would be able to locate a network head who lives in Dubai. »
“A very strong instrument”
In front, there investigative committee of the Senate on the impact of drug trafficking in France, the public prosecutor of Marseille, Nicolas Bessone, believes that the repentants “can represent a very strong instrument to hit the top of the pyramid”. But at the same time he mentions the “people at the heart of the organization”, those who have “blood on their hands”.
For Me Philippe-Henry Honegger, called before the commission to give his opinion on the status of repentants, the latter can also be small informants. But more generally it raises the necessary cost-benefit ratio for tongues to loosen. He also warns of the legal risks linked to this status: “As a lawyer, I think that if you promise something to someone in exchange for information, they will tell you what you want, but not necessarily the truth. » Ultimatelyit is up to the judge to assess the probative value of such statements.
“This statute is interesting but we must be careful about how it is inserted into the procedure, the defense lawyer must be able to discuss the appropriateness or the veracity of things,” echoes the president of the Marseille bar, Me Mathieu Jacquier. And according to him, “to have a repentant person useful for the manifestation of the truth, we must think at a more important level” than that of nanny.