The three lawyers of Cédric Jubillar, ex-husband of Delphine, missing since 2020, and main suspect in this case, are angry. After several news stories this week, the judges’ decision to send Cédric back to court, then the lawyers to appeal, they are holding a press briefing this Friday morning. All three announced that they wanted to file a complaint against the two investigating judges as well as against the former Toulouse prosecutor. on the grounds that the presumption of innocence would be violated.
An “intolerable violation of the rule of law”
“This charging order is an intolerable violation of the rule of lawwas offended Mr. Alexandre Martin. From the start, the procedure was carried out solely at the expense of. The lawyer goes even further, talking about “scandal” : “It is written in this order, in black and white, that Cédric Jubillar is guilty of the murder of Delphine. It is outrageous, it is an attack on the presumption of innocence.” According to the lawyers, the appeal will be formally filed this Friday afternoon.
The 3rd point of the “discussion” part
For the three defense counsel, the sentence that poses a problem is on page 45 of the Indictment Order. In the chapter of “discussion”, the 3rd point is thus titled: “all the elements collected during the judicial investigation demonstrate that Cédric Jubillar is the author of the murder of his wife, that he is the last to have seen her alive”. For Me Alexandre Martin, this is not just a way of bringing the judges’ reasoning to fruition, it is a problem: “We are in a democratic country with a justice system where everyone has a role. You have police officers or gendarmes who investigate and who gather elements. You have judges who investigate and who gather charges and who in the end remain in their square. At the end they say *we believe that we have gathered charges which allow us to say this man must appear before a trial court*. And then we have judges who judge. And that’s only from that moment on, the presumption of innocence ends only when the litigant has been judged impartially by magistrates in the context of a public trial! So investigating judges who, in the framework in addition to a closed session, who are not there to judge… the fruit of their reasoning, in their living room, in the evening we have nothing to do! And that is unacceptable. They do not have no right to do so. The defense that would accept that would be an unworthy defense. In lawyer’s memory. No one has ever seen anything like this.”
“The fruit of their reasoning, in their living room, in the evening we have nothing to do!”
Me Emmanuelle Franck adds: “It is of the very essence of the profession of magistrate to guarantee this rule of law. It is of the very essence of this profession of magistrate to respect the rules, to respect the laws before wanting to impose them on others and to make them respected by others. So it is a scandal that we could even describe as a democratic scandal that consists of magistrates flouting and trampling on the presumption of innocence. And I would say in an unprecedented way, because it is in an official and written manner. It is a real scandal, indeed democratic, that which consists of writing in black and white that Cédric Jubillar, is guilty of the murder of Delphine Jubillar, even though this man has not not yet been judged. It is truly contempt which is shown by these investigating judges with regard to the possible future jurors of assizes from whom we ultimately withdraw all independence since we consider that things have already been judged beforehand.”