The court of Bastia, in Corsica.

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PASCAL POCHARD-Casabianca / AFP

A couple indicted in early February and placed in pre-trial detention following the death of their 4-month-old baby who presented with significant injuries, was released Friday for "procedural reasons", we learned this Friday from the Bastia prosecutor.

The father was indicted in early February for "aggravated intentional homicide" and "aggravated violence" while the mother was indicted for "aggravated violence, failure to report ill-treatment of a 15-year-old minor and failure to provide assistance to anyone. in aggravated danger ”after the death of their baby at the Nice hospital following his transfer from Corsica.

"Procedural grounds"

The two had been placed in detention by the judge of freedoms and detention after the opening of a judicial investigation entrusted to an investigating judge.

"The release decision is linked to procedural reasons", told AFP Arnaud Viornery, prosecutor of the Republic of Bastia, specifying that "on the merits, this decision has no impact on the progress of judicial information ”.

According to a source familiar with the matter, the placement in detention was the subject of an appeal before the investigating chamber of the court of appeal which confirmed the detention but in a decision taken out of time, leading the general prosecutor's office. to order the release of the parents.

Parents claim their innocence

"The release of my client is directly related to our appeal to the Court of Cassation against the decision of the investigating chamber", for his part, told AFP the lawyer of the father, Me Grégoire Etrillard.

"We continue to fight to demonstrate the innocence of our client and the errors of the recommendations of the High Authority for Health on the shaken baby syndrome which is the basis of this unfair procedure", he added, pointing to an "absence a solid scientific basis for the accusation of ill-treatment ”.

Me Anna-Livia Guerrini, who defends the mother, told AFP that she was "relieved of the release" of her client because "she is a very young woman of 20 who has suffered difficult things and is living a dramatic mourning ”.

"I had appealed against the pre-trial detention because I felt that there was no medical certainty and that there were guarantees of sufficient representation", she added, satisfied that the instruction “Can be completed in conditions of serenity”.

Injuries, hematomas and intracranial wounds

Help was called at the end of January to take care of this baby in Calenzana, a village in Balagne (Haute-Corse) where he lived with his parents.

First transferred to the Calvi hospital in serious condition, he was then taken to Nice where he died.

In view of the wounds, bruises and intracranial wounds presented by the small victim, attesting to "the violence of the blows", the prosecution had retained the count of "aggravated intentional homicide", then told AFP the prosecutor of Bastia.

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Miscellaneous

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