Pension reform: Éric Dupond-Moretti calls on prosecutors to be firm

Europe 1 with AFP 17:50 p.m., March 22, 2023

Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti called for "a systematic and rapid criminal response" against protesters arrested on the sidelines of rallies against the pension reform for "serious disturbances to public order", "attacks on persons and property" and "acts of intimidation and threats against elected officials". In a "dispatch" sent to the attorneys general and prosecutors of the Republic on March 18 and which AFP learned Wednesday, the Minister of Justice calls on magistrates to "get closer to the prefectural authority" so that it "keeps them informed of the planned events and the means implemented to secure the demonstrations and preserve public order". "You will pay particular attention to offences that would be committed against elected officials," the minister insisted in his note.

>> READ ALSO - INFO EUROPE 1 - Pension reform: between 40,000 and 70,000 protesters expected Thursday in Paris

Reminder of sanctions against threat actors

"Whenever the circumstances of commission of the facts justify it, you will appreciate the possibility of retaining the qualifications" of the article "which provides that is punishable by ten years of imprisonment and a fine of 150,000 euros the fact of using threats, violence or committing any other act of intimidation" against an elected official, he recalled. "You will ensure that the proceedings conducted in this context are provided with a systematic and rapid criminal response," said Éric Dupond-Moretti.

"The most serious facts, in particular violence committed against elected officials or members of the security forces, will have to give rise to referrals in the context of immediate appearances, appearances by minutes, and appearances on prior recognition of guilt on deferrals," he added. "Other modes of criminal response, including alternatives to prosecution, will be confined to the least serious and isolated facts," the minister said.

Several hundred protesters arrested since the beginning of the rallies

He invited the magistrates to request "additional penalties to avoid the repetition of the facts". "The sentences of exclusion from residence (...) or a ban on appearing in certain places seem particularly appropriate," he said. "The importance or multiplication of possible violent excesses can have a heavy impact on prosecutors," noted Eric Dupond-Moretti, inviting prosecutors general subject to a "temporarily increased load of activity" to delegate to jurisdictions "less concerned".

>> READ ALSO – Pensions: fine, prison, civil rights... What participants in an illegal protest risk

Since March 16, the date of the government's use of 49.3 for the adoption of the pension reform, several hundred demonstrators have been arrested in France, their police custody usually ending in a dismissal without follow-up. Thus in Paris, according to the latest consolidated report of the prosecutor's office, 425 people were placed in custody during the first three evenings of spontaneous demonstrations, from Thursday to Saturday, of which only 52 were prosecuted at the end.