Paris (AFP)
The Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti announced on Sunday that he wanted to set a threshold of non-consent at 18 for incest, as requested by personalities from the artistic world in a forum signed by more than 50,000 people.
"For incest, we want the threshold of 18. Nobody can say: if the victim is 17, she was or he agreed," said the Minister of Justice in the "Grand jury LCI / RTL / Le Figaro ".
"On incest, we continue to work", and these are "choices that were arbitrated by the chancellery", he added.
In a column published Friday in Le Parisien Weekend, 162 personalities from the artistic world called for the protection of children from sexual crimes, calling them a "mass crime".
"We who want firm laws to dissuade these unacceptable acts, all of us who are signing this petition today, ask you that this threshold of non-consent be set at 15 years, 18 in the event of incest", says the text , written by Tristane Banon and signed in particular by Juliette Binoche, Isabelle Carré, Guillaume Gallienne or Patrice Leconte.
The platform, posted online in the form of a petition, had collected more than 50,000 signatures on Sunday.
The government said last Tuesday that it was "in favor" that any act of sexual penetration committed by an adult on a minor under the age of 15 now automatically constitutes a crime, without it being possible to question the consent of the victim.
Asked about the entry into force of the text, Eric Dupond-Moretti mentioned the month of April "probably".
The Minister of Justice "seems to have finally heard our requests and that of the 160 personalities expressed in Le Parisien this weekend", welcomed Sunday on Twitter the Collective for children, which brings together about thirty associations.
“The mobilization is starting to pay off!”, Tweeted for its part the association Facing incest on Twitter.
"But let us remain vigilant: the double threshold of age 15 years / 18 years must be drafted in a robust way avoiding a double pitfall: regression in relation to existing law and unconstitutionality", she added.
Regarding the limitation period, that is to say the period beyond which one can no longer judge the facts, the Minister stressed the lack of consensus.
"Some victims need the deadline beyond which nothing is possible to decide. The mechanism is: there are still two months before the prescription, I'm going, I'm going to free myself from this unbearable weight, and there will be a trial, ”he said.
"Other victims say, I want to free myself but I do not want a trial and I am waiting for the limitation period to be acquired."
Eric Dupond-Moretti said he wanted "a graduated, staggered prescription".
“You have four prescribed cases, committed by the same author, so four victims who will not have the right to justice, then another case committed by the same author who is not time-barred. I want all five cases to be judged , that the four victims who had no right to anything be recognized by justice, "he explained.
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