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Justice professionals are divided on reform Getty Images / Stockbyte

The trial of a rape case that begins this Thursday, September 5 in Caen, in western France, is unpublished: the defendant will be the first to be tried by one of the new criminal courts resulting from the reform of the justice of last March. Calvados is indeed one of the 7 departments selected to experiment these new instances without a popular jury, responsible for judging certain crimes in place of the Assize Courts. But justice professionals are divided on the reform.

The new criminal courts will judge crimes punishable by 15 to 20 years in prison, mainly cases of rape, armed robbery or procuring. The stated goal of the government is to relieve congestion and shorten the time for judgment.

Céline Parisot, president of the Union Syndicale des Magistrats (USM), sees a way to stop the current trend of re-qualifying certain crimes to obtain a quicker judgment.

" Today it is essentially rapes that are not judged as a crime, but as a crime. They are judged as sexual assault. It's still not the same thing, already for the victim and even for the author. It incurs a penalty obviously less important, so that, it seems hardly acceptable to us. And we hope that these criminal courts by saving time can judge more rapes, especially as crimes. "

It therefore judges the innovation interesting, provided to mobilize the necessary human resources. Because contrary to the assizes, these new courses will be composed only of professional magistrates, without popular jury, which deplores the president of the union of the magistrature Katia Dubreuil.

" The presence of jurors for us is a link between justice and the people on whose behalf justice is rendered. And so, it is something that is very important to us. And then, the presence of the jurors is the guarantee that there is a real debate of the highest quality in these hearings, that we will take the time to hear each other, because these jurors are not professional magistrates, so we replay during the trial all the elements of the procedure whereas in correctional one can judge this same type of case in an hour or two. "

The experiment will last 3 years.

► See also: France: Parliament adopts new justice reform project