"Boulin affair": the family of the former minister assigns the state for "gross negligence"
Robert Boulin at the Elysée Palace, September 26, 1979, in Paris.
AFP PHOTO / MARCEL BINH
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
In France, this is a new twist in what is called the “Boulin affair”.
The family of the former Gaullist minister, found dead in 1979, sued the state for "gross negligence" denouncing the lack of progress in the investigation.
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“
I do not despair of justice, because I am resolutely a democrat, but I have been waiting for justice for 42 years.
I am very patient, but it damages our democracy not to do everything to find out the truth about my father's death
, ”said Fabienne Boulin-Burgeat.
Robert Boulin's daughter accuses the two investigating magistrates of Versailles of "
not working
" to advance the investigation.
She is claiming 100,000 euros from the State in compensation for the damage.
Robert Boulin's body was found on October 30, 1979, in 50 cm of water in the Rompu pond in Saint-Léger-en-Yvelines (Île-de-France region). Immediately after his death, it was announced that the Minister of Labor of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, 59, had committed suicide after consuming barbiturates. The minister had just been questioned concerning the conditions for acquiring land in Ramatuelle, in the south of France.
The case had initially been classified as a suicide before an investigation was opened following a complaint of the family against X for voluntary homicide, in 1983. The body is exhumed and a new autopsy reveals two fractures to the face .
No medical analysis of the lungs, which should have established the drowning, is found in the 1979 file. The investigation ended with a dismissal in 1991.
In 2015, the courts decided to
reopen the case
for “kidnapping” and “murder”, following a complaint from his daughter.
She has always maintained that it was a political assassination and not a suicide.
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To read also: 40 years after the death of Robert Boulin, a “citizen” reconstruction
"
Five years later, more than 25 witnesses are still waiting to be heard, if they are able to do so or, worse, that some have not died in the meantime
", regretted in a press release sent to AFP Fabienne Boulin-Burgeat and his lawyer Me Marie Dosé, specifying that “
four witnesses are dead
”.
Deploring the "
decline of evidence
", they insist: "
This series of deficiencies in the search for the causes of the death of Robert
Boulin reflects the inability of the public service of justice to fulfill the mission with which it is invested and characterizes a serious fault. of the State
”.
And they assure that no act of instruction has been "fixed" for months.
(With
AFP
)
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