Europe 1 with AFP 10:08 a.m., February 5, 2024

A judicial investigation was opened for “rape committed against a 15-year-old minor” after a complaint filed in 2022 by Lina, a teenager who disappeared in Alsace in September, the Strasbourg public prosecutor announced on Monday.

In June 2022, at the age of 13 and a half, Lina filed a complaint for gang rape, for acts committed the previous month. The procedure was dismissed by the Saverne public prosecutor's office in the spring of 2023. But after the disappearance of the young girl, in September 2023, this complaint was re-examined by the Saverne prosecutor, who finally relinquished it in favor of the Strasbourg public prosecutor's office.

Judicial investigation opened for “rape committed against a 15-year-old minor”

On Friday, "the Strasbourg public prosecutor's office opened a judicial investigation into the charge of rape committed against a 15-year-old minor by an adult with an age difference of at least five years," Yolande Renzi said in a press release. This judicial information is “unrelated and distinct from that currently open on counts of kidnapping and criminal confinement”, underlined the magistrate.

Lina, 15, disappeared on September 23, after leaving her home in Plaine (Bas-Rhin) to go to the Saint-Blaise-la-Roche station, about three kilometers away. Friday, during a press conference organized with Lina's mother, her lawyer, Me Matthieu Airoldi, criticized the Saverne prosecutor's office for the handling of the rape complaint. Me Airoldi asked for “explanations” from the Saverne public prosecutor’s office, both “on the dismissal of this complaint” and “on the fact that Lina’s disappearance leads to a re-examination of the complaint”. Believing that the procedure had been "poorly conducted", he announced that his client was going to file a complaint with a civil party, which would result in referral to an investigating judge.

His mother, Fanny Groll, said she felt "betrayed" when she learned of this dismissal when she thought the case was still ongoing. “By not acting, they did not protect her, even though at 13 and a half years old she really needed the justice system to protect her.” The investigation into the disappearance was also initially carried out by the Saverne public prosecutor's office, which then transferred responsibility to the Strasbourg public prosecutor's office.