INTERVIEW
Literature, sport, cinema. Many rape cases rock French society. The Paris prosecution has opened a preliminary investigation for rape and sexual assault on minors by a person having authority over the victim, after the testimony of French skater Sarah Abitbol. She accuses her ex-trainer, Gilles Beyer, of rape when she was only 15 to 17 years old. However, the facts are likely to be prescribed and the holding of a trial would be jeopardized. Rémy Heitz, public prosecutor in Paris returns to the usefulness of such a judicial procedure, for the first time on Europe 1. He explains that the prescription of the facts is not yet established for the Abitbol or Matzneff case.
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Check the prescription of the facts
"The approach of the Paris prosecutor's office in these complicated and sensitive cases is always, when it comes to minors, whether the facts are prescribed or not, to open an investigation. There are several objectives: the manifestation of the truth, but also to verify whether the facts are prescribed, and to ensure that there are no forgotten victims. " He recalls the importance of taking a "legal" view of the facts, taking into account the evolution of the statute of limitations, which is currently 30 years old. "It is very complicated, it is necessary to combine a certain number of factors: the date of the events, the applicable law, the age of the victim", lists Rémy Heitz.
In order not to forget the other victims, and to allow them to express themselves in order to take their word into account, the public prosecutor of Paris announces the launch this Tuesday of a call for witnesses in another recent case, l 'Matzneff case, to encourage the voice of other possible victims. The writer Gabriel Matzneff is accused of rape by Vanessa Springora, who recounts her actions in her book Le Consentement, when she was only 14 years old.
Free the voice of the victims
"The truth for the victims, so that there are no forgotten victims", explains Rémy Heitz. "We have this approach both for known victims, for those who publish books on what they have experienced, but we also do it daily and for a very long time for all victims, sometimes more anonymous, who demonstrate and seize us Even if they do not seize us we are sometimes led to self-grasp these extremely serious facts when they were committed against minors. "
But how do you recognize the status of victims without trial? Indeed, if it turns out that the facts are prescribed, a criminal trial will be impossible. "This is the principle of prescription," concedes the public prosecutor. "But once again in our approach we are already trying to shed light on these extremely serious facts. It is above all through the criminal trial that this status can be recognized. It is therefore important that speech be freed so that it may be trials. "
"The process is really talking about it," says Rémy Heitz. "Do not hesitate especially to go to a police service, to justice so that investigations can be carried out. In a concern also of prevention, because when we arrest the author of such acts, often predators who act in a way serial, we ensure prevention and avoid other dramas. "