Accused of having falsified a criminal file in 2015 to keep a detainee incarcerated, who had committed suicide shortly after, the two magistrates were released. The Lyon Criminal Court pronounced the release on Wednesday.
Following the complaint of the family of the disappeared, Eric Hager, the two women had been returned to the Lyon Criminal Court, after a change of scenery, for “forgery in public writing and arbitrary detention by a person holding public authority “.
There was a “succession of oversights and errors”, a “lack of verification” and “disciplinary faults”, but “no fraudulent intent” in the acts of the two magistrates, the prosecutor had said at the time. hearing on September 21, before requesting release.
Inmate suicide
On June 12, 2015, Éric Hager appeared before the criminal court of Bar-le-Duc (Meuse) for acts of aggravated willful violence. He was then sentenced to a two-year prison term, six months of which was suspended. But, since no further detention was ordered on the criminal file or pronounced publicly, the lawyer for this man had told him that he could be released during the day.
The clerk, who had then noted the absence of mention relating to the continued detention, had returned to see the president of the court and the deputy prosecutor to question them on this subject. After a brief discussion between them, the substitute had added on the hearing sheet the handwritten mention “continued in detention”. Éric Hager, informed that he would not ultimately be released, committed suicide in his cell.
It was recognized at the time that the court had forgotten to pronounce the continued detention. The two magistrates, thinking of repairing their error, had added it.
Because of the youth of the substitute (27 years old then) and the lack of experience of the president, who had been in office for three months at the time, they had been exempted from punishment.