How long can Cédric Jubillar remain in pre-trial detention?

• This Thursday, the judge of freedoms and detention of the judicial court of Toulouse examines the renewal of the warrant of deposit of Cédric Jubillar.

• Indicted since June 18, 2021 for the murder of his wife Delphine, this Tarn plasterer has been in pre-trial detention since that date.

• Pre-trial detention which can last several years depending on the case but is subject to well-defined rules according to Catherine Ginestet, professor of private law at Toulouse-Capitole University interviewed by

  20 Minutes

  .

On June 18, 2021, six after the disappearance of his wife Delphine, in Cagnac-les-Mines in the Tarn, Cédric Jubillar was placed in pre-trial detention.

Indicted for the murder of his wife, for a year, he has been in solitary confinement in a cell in the Seysses remand center, while the investigation continues in this high-profile affair.

Thursday morning, the judge of freedoms and detention of the judicial court of Toulouse will examine the renewal of his warrant of deposit in the presence of his lawyers and a representative of the prosecution.

A procedure that falls within a legal and highly regulated framework, while over the past twelve months the multiple requests for release of the 34-year-old plasterer have all been rejected.

How long can Cédric Jubillar remain in detention?

What are the criteria that can justify his continued detention?

takes stock of this criminal procedure measure.

“Detention is the exception”

Cédric Jubillar is one of the 26% of people imprisoned in France in the context of pre-trial detention according to the latest figures published by the Ministry of Justice as part of its latest half-yearly report on the prison population.

A significant number.

And yet, as Catherine Ginestet, professor of private law at Toulouse-Capitole University, reminds us, “regardless of the duration, pre-trial detention is the exception”.

Because it also exists in the context of the immediate appearance or the guilty plea procedure.

“A person indicted in the context of a case, whether criminal or correctional, remains in principle at liberty.

It's written in black and white in the Code of Procedure.

Except that, of course, there may be restrictive or custodial measures that are taken.

Pre-trial detention is the most serious measure that can be taken in the context of an investigation where the person is indicted but remains presumed innocent, ”recalls this specialist who published last year

alongside Thierry Garé.

At the same time, the Penal Code, in accordance with European law, indicates that this deprivation of liberty cannot exceed "a reasonable period".

And so he sets the rules for crime.

The maximum duration of pre-trial detention is thus one year, renewable for six months several times.

At each examination of the renewal of the warrant of deposit, as will be the case this Thursday for Cédric Jubillar, there are contradictory debates and there must systematically be a motivation for the order.

Deadlines… With extensions

“There are deadlines set by the Code of Criminal Procedure, from renewal to renewal, of two years, three years or four years depending on the case.

It depends on the type of case, the penalty incurred.

If it proves to be essential, the pre-trial detention must be controlled, it cannot be arbitrary, ”continues the teacher.

Thus, for a crime punishable by a prison sentence of less than twenty years, the total duration of detention is limited to two years.

But it can go up to three years when the offense was committed outside France.

For acts of terrorism, the total duration is limited to four years, but the investigating chamber of the court of appeal may exceptionally extend it by four additional months, once or twice.

But the magistrates, whether from the investigating chamber or the judge of freedoms and detention, can decide to further extend the detention pending trial based on certain criteria listed in article 144 of the Criminal Code. .

It is thus necessary that they demonstrate with "precise and detailed elements" that this detention will make it possible to "conserve the evidence or material clues which are necessary for the manifestation of the truth" or even prevent "pressure on witnesses or victims as well as their families.

It must also prevent the detainee from coming into contact with accomplices or trying to flee.

The continuation of the incarceration must also "put an end to the exceptional and persistent disturbance to public order caused by the seriousness of the offence", but this disturbance "cannot result from the sole media repercussions of the case", specifies the coded.

Nine months of pre-trial detention in the Viguier case

“In the Viguier case, he served nine months in pre-trial detention and quite honestly there are far fewer elements in the Jubillar file than in that of Viguier.

They kept looking and found nothing.

We do not really see what more will be done in the context of the instruction which justifies the maintenance of our client in detention ”, pleads Emmanuelle Franck, one of the three lawyers who defends Cédric Jubillar.

It refers to this Toulouse case in which there was no crime scene, no corpse, no confession.

As in the Jubillar affair where, for a year, dozens of analyzes have been carried out.

Others are still in progress, such as that of the DNA traces present on the broken glasses of the missing person.

Or the results of biological samples taken from a friend's car, suspected of having been used by the main suspect to move the body.

Solicited in the context of the case, Cagnac mining specialists indicated that all the cavity entrances had been blocked and that it was difficult to be able to hide a body there.

The investigation will therefore continue, the judges will also have to organize at some point a reconstruction of the crime.

Cédric Jubillar could therefore remain in detention until his dismissal before the assizes if he remains the main suspect.

And then until his trial where he faces life imprisonment for spousal murder.

"But after two years, you have to justify exceptional circumstances to keep in detention", continues Me Franck who has this kind of case in cases of rape, even in cases of murder where the indicted has a psychological profile particular.

The instruction can also sometimes drag on and it is necessary to take into account the delay to find a niche at the assizes.

“But if it lasts ten or fifteen years, then there is a good chance of being condemned by the European Court of Human Rights for a procedure which has exceeded the framework of the reasonable time limit”, concludes Catherine Ginestet.

Company

Delphine Jubillar case: What happened to the confrontation between Delphine's husband and his ex-convict to whom he allegedly confessed?

Company

Delphine Jubillar case: The husband's fellow prisoner released in exchange for his testimony?

The prosecution denies

• Company

• Toulouse

• Justice

• Jubillar case

• Jail

• Freedom

• Murder

• Occitania

• Miscellaneous facts