Paris (AFP)
Faced with the release of the word of victims of sexual offenses and in particular of incest, the Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti asked the prosecutors to "systematically" open an investigation, even if the facts are likely to be prescribed, according to a note consulted Monday by AFP.
The Minister of Justice had already announced on February 9 that he would ask the prosecution for these systematic openings of investigations, while testimonies on incest have multiplied in the wake of the Olivier Duhamel case, after the accusations brought by his daughter-in-law Camille Kouchner in the book "La Familia grande".
"If some of these testimonies are particularly publicized, they should not lead us to forget that reality is made up of multiple other victims, who do not access these communication relays but for whom the suffering is identical", writes Eric Dupond -Moretti in this note to magistrates dated Friday.
"It seems to me essential (...) to systematically proceed with the opening of a preliminary investigation" when old facts are revealed, "liable to be covered by the limitation period", explains the Minister of Justice.
"The purposes (...) are multiple", he continues.
The investigations must initially make it possible to "verify whether, with regard to the date of the facts denounced, these, supposing them constituted, would be prescribed".
"Then and above all, the investigation will allow the carrying out of investigations in the environment of the accused person in order, if necessary, to discover the existence of other victims for whom the facts are not prescribed, even for which only the investigation would be likely to reveal facts from which they would continue to suffer ", underlines the Minister.
This should also allow "a person implicated to explain himself on the charges brought against him", within the framework of a hearing which "guarantees respect for the presumption of innocence from which he benefits".
The Minister of Justice also asks that at the end of the investigation, the decision to classify her because of the statute of limitations of the facts be "brought to the attention of the victims".
It also calls on the prosecution to clarify whether, despite the limitation period, the facts denounced do indeed constitute an offense or if the offense does not appear to have been constituted.
In this case, "if the procedure has been the subject of media coverage, the public prosecutors must make the reasons for this classification public in order to put an end to the spread of slanderous information", claims Eric Dupond-Moretti .
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