Since the start of the urban violence following Nahel’s death, more than 3,600 people have been taken into police custody, resulting in a large number of immediate appearances. Many prison sentences were pronounced, including for defendants with no criminal record.
She entered this Zara store in full looting, on this afternoon of Friday, June 30. Which will earn him a prison sentence. After 48 hours of pre-trial detention, a young girl who has just come of age was tried on Monday July 3 at the Strasbourg court (Bas-Rhin), as part of the immediate appearances which follow one another after the riots which followed the death of Nahel .
“She has saw everyone rushing, while she was walking with her cousin downtown”says the lawyer Thibaut Mathias, present at the hearing. The teenager first grabbed some clothes, then threw them on the ground, becoming aware of her gesture, before being arrested. “She immediately admitted her responsibility to the judge. She said: ‘I did anything’ and expressed a lot of regret”relates the lawyer, who recalls that the young woman had already been sentenced to three months in prison suspended for acts of theft when she was a minor.
The judge finally pronounced six months in prison, with a warrant of committal, the time that the judge of freedoms and detention rules on his case and grants him a sentence adjustment with an electronic bracelet. “She will have spent several days in prison”notes Thibaut Mathias, who emphasizes “the extreme severity of the judgment”. With the exception of one person, the eight defendants tried in immediate appearance that day all suffered the same fate: a sentence of imprisonment, accompanied by a stay behind bars.
The Chancellery calls for a “firm” response
The lawyer regrets that we have “sacrifice the individual for the benefit of the community” during these hearings. His feelings are shared by some of his colleagues. All make the same observation: on the whole, convictions for participation in urban violence are heavy. The consequence, according to them, of a circular sent by the Minister of Justice, Eric Dupond-Moretti, in which he requested a judicial response “fast, firm and systematic”. Since the start of the riots all over France, 3,693 people have been placed in police custody and 1,122 have been brought to justice, according to figures communicated Thursday evening by the Chancellery to franceinfo.
“We are in a completely atypical situation, where the will to send a message to the population is much more important than the strict application of the criminal law.”
Thibaut Mathias, lawyerat franceinfo
This severity does not only apply to those who are at the origin of the riots or damage, but also to “peloton tails”as Thibaut Mathias calls them. “We realize that in the files in immediate appearance, we mainly have the last wheels of the carriage, which arrived a posteriori, to take advantage of the situation and help ourselves. These are especially those that the police arrested”notes lawyer Tiphaine Michel, present at the Lyon court on Tuesday.
The 19-year-old she represents was tried for having participated in the looting of a Chronopost warehouse in Vénissieux (Rhône). He is, however, one of the few not to have been placed under a warrant of committal at the end of his sentence to eight months in prison, arranged there also in the form of an placement under an electronic bracelet. “The court was able to take a step back, taking into account his age, the fact that he recognized the facts and the anecdotal role he had”, comments the lawyer, rather satisfied with this judgment.
Ten months in prison for a can
Like him, most of the defendants tried in recent days throughout the country are very often young adults – minors are tried according to another procedure – who do not necessarily have a criminal record, underline the lawyers interviewed by franceinfo. In Marseille, a large proportion of young people presented to the judge “were rather from good families, well integrated socially and professionally”, according to lawyer Camille Bal, who believes that“they gave in to temptation and a feeling of omnipotence, fueled by a viral contagion effect on social networks”.
The lawyer says she understands the will of justice “to send a strong message to anyone who might be tempted to get involved in wrongdoing”while nearly 400 stores were devastated and looted in the Marseille city. However, it considers that most of the sentences handed down were of one “extreme severity, including for first-time offenders who had no criminal record”. Monday, on the first day of appearances in Marseille, the prosecutor often requested firm imprisonment, including against a 28-year-old man, arrested by the police with … a can of Red Bull.
“He arrived after the deluge. The store had been completely robbed. He saw the can, took it and was arrested on the way out”, details his lawyer, Camille Bal, stating that he had “a mention in his record last year for similar facts”, since he had been judged for burglary and received a one-year suspended sentence. His state of recidivism has not been held against him, assures the lawyer. Despite this, he was still sentenced to ten months in prison for the theft of this can. The man is however “extremely well integrated socially and professionally, he has always worked”despite “an extremely heavy drug treatment, for psychological disorders”, describes Camille Bal, who will request a sentence adjustment which has not yet been granted.
“The media pressure was overwhelming”
That day, she was also representing an 18-year-old defendant, who entered an Orange store, which had just been looted and “where there was nothing left to steal”. The man came out empty-handed. He was still sentenced to six months in prison (equipped with an electronic bracelet).
“The judge considered that the offense was constituted whereas, for there to be an attempt to steal and subtract the property of others, there must be property. He was sentenced to the same penalty as ‘another defendant, arrested at the same time, and who had left with a tablet and other objects.
Camille Bal, lawyerat franceinfo
In Nanterre, where the urban violence began, lawyer Fabien Arakelian pleaded in five cases, Friday June 30 and Sunday July 1. Among them, two men were tried for firing fireworks and another for throwing bags of cement at police officers. “They were obviously convicted, but their sentences are not outrageous”, he believes. He welcomes the fact that the requisitions “surrealists” of the prosecutor “have not been followed” and said he was relieved that the president did not “let the context dictate his conduct”, while “the media pressure was overwhelming”.
His colleague, Rudy Albina, who also pleaded in Nanterre in three cases, says he is rather “mixed” regarding the severity of the court. For one of his clients, accused of possession and transport of mortars, he considers that the sentence is rather correct (100 days fine of 10 euros, or 1,000 euros in total). “He escapes from prison”, welcomes his lawyer. But during another hearing, a 21-year-old defendant was sentenced to prison for throwing stones at the police, “despite a clean record”. “In any other circumstance, he would have taken a reprieve”assures the lawyer, who makes “obviously call” even if he is not “not optimistic”.
An “emergency justice” to the detriment of “quality”
For lawyer Agathe Grenouillet, who practices in Bobigny (Seine-Saint-Denis), the crux of the problem lies in the systematization of the procedure in immediate appearance “for damage to property or theft”. This mode of pursuit, used for facts simple, when a thorough investigation is not necessary, is criticized by part of the judicial world, which accuses it of being too expeditious and of favoring severe penalties and incarceration.
“Usually, for a trash fire or theft without a criminal record, the person would have been summoned to court several months later. There, they are judged immediately.”
Agathe Grenouillet, lawyerat franceinfo
Albertine Munoz, sentencing judge in Bobigny and member of the Syndicat de la magistrature (SM), believes that the immediate appearance “does not allow for the rendering of quality justice”. It is for her “emergency justice”where the procedures “are not always very rigorous”. “Many nullities” have also been raised during the hearings of the last few days, which several of the lawyers interviewed by franceinfo have confirmed.
“The police don’t have time to do their job properly.”analyzes the magistrate, explaining that it has sometimes lacked essential elements for the constitution of a file, such as the “Interpellation records”. Fabien Arakelian even had “totally absent seals” for thefts of several thousand euros, which allowed him to obtain a release for one of his clients.
A “real difficulty in individualizing the sentence”
Another reproach formulated by Agathe Grenouillet against this accelerated procedure: the “real difficulty in individualizing the sentence”, what the Penal Code provideswhich stipulates that the judge must adapt the sentence according to the personality of the defendant. “It’s very complicated to have information on someone’s personality in 48 hours”concedes the magistrate Albertine Munoz.
This observation is however not shared by Alexandra Vaillant, general secretary of the Union of magistrates (USM), who recalls that this principle is constitutional and that “to decide and justify a sentence, all magistrates refer to the law, based on the defendant’s file, and on the seriousness of the facts”. The magistrate points out that in some property damage cases, we are not just talking about “minor damage”but also of “serious facts”as “courts burned, public buildings ransacked”, hence the referral decisions.
Lawyer Thibaut Mathias is also worried about “the extremely traumatic experience” what is incarceration, especially for people convicted for the first time, and fears that this leaves “a feeling of injustice” young people who find themselves confronted with it, pointing out the psychological risks of “prison shock”. “Prison cannot be used lightly to convey a message.”