Rough justice for French journalist and pilot

The subject today is the abuse of power by French police and judges. Two lurid examples have made the headlines for different reasons. One involves a journalist and the other a recreational pilot. Since I am both, I of course feel extra indignation.

Journalists do not usually get sympathy when they complain about mistreatment,  but the tale of Vittorio de Filippis [in picture], a manager with Libération, has caused an  outcry. It tells you about the heavy-handed methods of a system which has extensive power to arrest and hold people.

Plainclothes officers hammered on de Filippis' door at 6.40 am last Friday. He was arrested in front of his two young sons and insulted. An officer called him "worse than garbage". He was taken in handcuffs to a holding cell and twice subjected to an intimate body search. He was questioned without access to a lawyer and released five hours later.

The police carried out their raid on the orders of Muriel Josié, an examining judge. De Filippis' alleged offence is that he was liable as publisher of Libération for a defamatory comment left by a reader on its internet site. In France, when you sue for libel, the case is prosecuted as a criminal one. In  this instance, the victim of the supposed libel, an internet businessman, has already lost two cases against the newspaper.

In other words, a judge ordered a newspaper executive to be dragged from his home and abused over an internet comment.  "I barely had time to reassure my son that I was not a crook and that this had to do with the newspaper," said de Filippis.

The behaviour of the judge and police stirred anger from most quarters over the weekend, including from President Sarkozy's UMP party. But today, Rachida Dati, the Justice Minister, said the police were carrying out standard procedure because de Filippis had ignored a summons to come to the judge's office.

As Laurent Joffrin, the Libération Editor, says today, the point is not that a journalist was given a hard time, but that judges and police behave like this often. "The inquisitorial procedure confers considerable power on examining judges. Some abuse it, as Judge Josié does," says Joffrin. "Too many police officers display culpable brutality and a contemptuous attitude towards defendants, especially if they are poorer, less educated or foreigners." Anyone who has lived much in a French city can testify to truth of that remark about the police (not the Gendarmerie, who are more civil).

There has been a steep increase in judges exercising their right to hold people overnight or longer for questioning on minor offences -- with no contact with lawyers. The practice was condemned today by Serge Portelli, a senior Paris judge who is an official with the magistrate's union, a left-leaning body. "We are facing an uncontrolled... explosion of the use of the means of coercion that are at the disposal of the state," he said.

   

The other case, involving the pilot, was driven by an extra ingredient: media hysteria. It began on a Sunday afternoon in late September when Xavier Thiry, an engineer aged 37, was flying his wife and two friends back to Paris from a visit to the Loire valley. Thiry finished up in jail for 24 hours. He was treated as a potential terrorist and last week he stood trial on charges of endangering life.

Thiry was not paying enough attention that Sunday and his Cessna 172 [in picture] strayed about 500 feet higher than he should have been in the strictly controlled airspace near Versailles, just south of the capital. You are not supposed to do that, but it happens.

Thiry had the bad luck to be in the same zone as a government jet that was bringing François Fillon, the Prime Minister, back from his Loire region home. The controllers alerted Fillon's pilots -- air force officers -- to the presence of the Cessna. They saw the other plane and delayed their descent, although the Cessna was never closer than a kilometre away and at a lower altitude. The two Air Force pilots later filed a report of an "airprox" -- a formality when a pilot believes another aircraft has come too close. About a hundred are made every year and a few dozen lead to disciplinary action by the aviation authority.

Normally Thiry would have received a letter. In this case, though, someone tipped off a news agency which reported that the Prime Minister had narrowly escaped disaster. All the media leaped in, reporting  Fillon's supposed brush with doom, the violent "emergency manouevres" of his Falcon jet and other fiction.

So the prosecutor at Versailles threw the book at the hapless private pilot. He was arrested and questioned for 24 hours as a criminal while his home and flying club were searched. He was banned from setting foot in aiports and he was rushed to trial in record time -- for an infraction that would never normally go to a court.

The verdict is to be announced in a couple of weeks. He will probably lose his licence and be fined. Unlike the journalist's case, there has been no outcry. The media thrive on fanning fears over air safety and non-specialist journalists usually get the aviation facts wrong. As a journalist, that point is always a salutory reminder of the difficulty of reporting a field which excites emotion and in which you do not have expertise.

Yes, these two cases are relatively small beer involving middle-class people. But they are still an illustration of the heavy-handed methods that seem to be increasingly deployed by the justice system. 

And a disclaimer to our anti-French-bashing monitors: I know similar things go on in many places, including the "Anglo-Saxon" world, but I write about France.    

Comments

[Craig McGinty]

No need for the disclaimer Charles, I think people in many countries are more worried about the growing influence that government has on all our lives, and how quickly laws for one thing can be twisted to be used elsewhere.

[John Bull]

Perhaps heavy-handed policing is spreading Europe-wide as part of the EU masterplan to create a massive EU police state, with no protection for individuals. French pilots and journalists, British MPs, where will it all end?

[Leo...]

Charles,
as a citizen of this country I can but agree, with utter dismay, to the truthfulness of your comments.
It is a shame that any citizen here has to fear the judicial system.

[Sigognac]

This is really disgusting and I am disgusted...
Libération happens to be one of the most vocal opponents of the current party in power (whatever one thinks of the newspaper itself). Coincidence?

[azloon]

[a government jet that was bringing François Fillon, the Prime Minister, back from his Loire region home] CB

is this standard procedure -- a minister using a government jet to travel to his home? does he or she reimburse the government for the expense of private travel (as is done in u.s. if the official can't devise some excuse for claiming official business)?

re the police

no police force, anywhere, is to be trusted. they are a barely necessary evil, their behavior best reviewed by (non-police) civilian review boards, and severe penalties imposed on perpetrators. in these cases, it seems the judicial system itself conspires with police thuggery, making review more difficult.

never trust a cop.

always question authority.

[Right on Az... on the plane, yes it's standard. The three-engined Dassault Falcon costs about 8,000 euros an hour to operate, everything included. The official excuse is that Fillon chooses to fly the journey that takes about an hour on the fast train because his security people would cause too much inconvenience to passengers clearing the train for explosives before he got on. French rulers have a habit of profligate use of official jets. President Chirac used to get his to take off in the early evening and circle around France burning jet fuel before heading out to nearish destinations so he could get a peaceful sleep. CB]

[Julio]

The case of M. De Philippis have such a mediatic impact because he's such a high target, but these tactics are used everyday for all sorts of cases.

The Outreau debacle highlighted the shortcomings of an entire system in the most vivid way possible.

What happened to the findings and recommendations of the commission who investigated those -too numerous to count- shortcomings ?
Your guess is as good as mine...

Strangely ,polls about how confident french people are of their institutions never seems to make it into the public domain.
Wonder why.

[Andrew]

The disclaimer is inappropriate, the authorities in France are incredibly heavy-handed. My wife, who is French, was prosecuted over a minor business dispute with her partner, and eventually acquitted after considerable legal costs. She was subjected to an 11 hour garde a vue after a dawn raid. Meanwhile theft by the partner, blatant disregard by her of undertakings to the police re partnership property which she walked off with, etc were completely ignored, one can only suppose because the partner, a young attractive woman, was sleeping with the procureur or the prefect. France, a nice place if one does nbot scratch the surface or have to deal with the locals. The system is unfortunately rotten.

[Nouf]

Sarah P. was right : "Hey Gov, out of my way!".

[richard.jones]

We have had a similar case here in Greece this weekend. A journalist (IMO - a real scandal-monger - paparazzi type - wrecked many lives) was arrested in Plaka (now almost a no go mostly African immigrant area) by the K (Krima) Police who wanted him to tell them where a distant cousin of his was (apparently a well-known professional criminal (ruins in the family?). Our journalist (Vassilis Ongopoulos) resisted and threatened to call for help, at which point on the streets of Plaka the K Police beat the merry Jesus out of him.
A crowd gathered to watch the scuffle, one of whom, a brown-skinned bearded man, tried to give some basic BandAid care to Ongopoulos and was duly matraqué for his pain. The purveyor of care was a Coptic priest and now sits in Igiea Hospital with several broken bones.
'In the present tense situation in regard to Plaka here in Athens and other places in Greece, Europe and the peaceful world we must expect more unfortunate situations of this kind. We do not condone the police action but understand that sometimes the need for a lawful solution might impinge and infringe (a truly wonderful piece of Greek here which I will not bore you with) upon the daily rights and liberties of some of our, and other states' citizens from occassion to rare occassion,' was the response from the Interior Minister.
Expect to see more and more mutterances of this kind from more and more officials less and less infrequently.
BTW the K Police are quite heavily armed (ordinary Greek Police carry a special 0.25 pistol with 3 rounds) and KPol are élite enough to do embassy guard duty.

[Tom Taylor-Duxbury]

At the moment I have the joy of a French tax investigation, so far I have spent several thousand proving the sale of a car and a loan from a friend was nothing abnormal in life.
The French State is paranoid in the extreme (as we can see from our own recent days, most socialist governments seem to suffer from that). The French ruing classes were born of revolution and seems to expect to die of the same sort of infarction.
Never forget too we now have the euro arrest warrant!
Forward to the brave new world in unison.

[Alex (London, UK)]

I travel regularly to the South of France (Cote d'Azur) and I can only agree to the very poor impression policemen give in the region. In general foreigners agree that they are extremely arrogant and not interested in claims coming from them. I recently lived myself police brutality in Antibes when I asked for assistance at the police station. Moreover, they refuse to identify themselves by any number or other means so you cannot even claim against them! France is good if you don't scratch its surface.

[peter kinsley www.peterkinsley.com]

I have only one question at the moment: when are we going to see Chirac before a court charged with misuse of taxpayers' money in spending a million and a half euros on his household food and wine in one year?
Otherwise, on the above it is up to the French journalists to petition or strike or cause enough disturbance to stop the police from winning everytime. It needs a campaign by a united Press under the same headline:
J'ACCUSE.

[dot king]

On Inter 13h news today they interviewed a representative of one of the magistrates' unions who expressed her, not outrage exactly, but alarm at the abuse of power so easily available to over-aurhoritarian judges.
They also gave some background to the case of the head of "Free" the internet and telephone company, who had De Philippis arrested. He has had brushes with the law for pimping (proxynète - orthographe?) and for involvement in prostitution, sex shops, and peep shows. And this starting at the age of 19.
And the police called the journalist "pire que la racaille".
Wow!

IMO the judge's motivations ought to be examined very closely as she reacted too readily with the arrest mandate in favour of someone so transparently with an axe to grind.

Frightening too how quickly the ministers of Justice and the Interior have jumped to the defence of the arrest and the police procedures used.
Even a Figaro journalist interviewed condemned what had happened, but as you say, not defending his Libé colleague, but saying that this is exactly what happens every day to ordinary people who don't have the connections to make a stir about it.

Let's hope it gets laughed out of court and Mr "Free" gets hit for loads of damages.

CHARLES: I hope you can spread the pilot story, which I remember very clearly, to a wider and possibly a French readership - you must have contacts at Libé, Ch Hebdo, le Canard etc...? :)

[Fernandez]

The French media seems either to be in the tank (or bed, a la Ferrari) for Sarkozy or on the butt end of the court system (civil or criminal).

The pilot I don't have any sympathy for. After Bombay, I can understand why the government was on heightened alert and, if the guy can't read a map, he shouldn't be flying. Small mistakes have disasterous consequences in the air.

[The government only got involved after the event because the media blew up what was a relatively minor infringement of airspace. My point was the disproportion of the punishment. If you argue that it needs criminal prosecution then this should be applied to everyone, not just an unfortunate who gets caught in the media glare because the Prime Minister's flying limo was nearby. CB]

[Daniel Strohl]

(not the Gendarmerie, who are more civil) - CHARLES

However, the gendarmes although being more civil are nevertheless military personnel wearing uniforms :) - they are on the payroll of the Ministère de la Défense.

More seriously : this morning, I heard on TV that the Libération journalist had neglected to comply with two (or three ?) previous summons by the judge.

SHOULD THIS BE TRUE, one may find normal that the judge sent police forces to bring him manu militari before her. Journalists too should comply with the law.

Regarding the insults, the same radio said that de Filippis had been arrogant with the police, which then answered in the same tonality. Here, it will be difficult to find the truth ... However, in the case of the summons, it should be easier to sort things. One may assume that summons are made in writing and that there are records of the proceedings.

[Tavi]

To all these worrying examples of abuse of "judicial" power, can we not add the Clearstream investigation?

Why on earth would DdV have ordered any investigations, let alone a DST one, if he knew they were false having helped make up the list? the best thing for DdV??

If he had added Sarko's name to the List, the only good course of action would have been to avoid any investigations that could find out the truth, and instead leak it immediately to the press and hope that, by the time it was revealed to be false, mud would have stuck to Sarko. Instead, Villepin told Gergorin to stay quiet about it until they knew more.

It doesn't make sense for him to be guilty. Maybe some people would have stopped when Rondot told them he thought the List was far too good to be true instead of waiting for the DST to declare it 100% false, but all this proves is that DDV desperately wanted Sarkozy to be guilty.

Yet it was his duty anyway to investigate it. If Sarkozy hadn't appeared on the list, no one would have found fault with DdV's actions. Or if Sarko had been a loyal Chiraquian and DDV had suppressed any investigation of the List, he would have been accused of covering up for friends, even if it did turn out to be false. And why would he refuse to be tried by the special ministerial court if he was guilty, instead of putting himself at the mercy of these Sarko-controlled prosecutors? He knows he's innocent.

People should ask themselves why on earth such a ridiculous unfounded case has proceeded so far! And why the media has been so complicit in it, with its screaming front page headlines of how DdV had encrypted computer files that would show his Clearstream guilt, or how he had shredded a report vindicating...yet when these are found to be completely untrue, the same "news"papers barely bother to mention it in the back pages if at all. Or take the past headlines saying Rondot denounces Villepin, and yet if one bothers to read past that into the article (as the paper knows most of its readers WON'T do), Rondot actually affirms he thinks DdV did believe the List was true!

There has been a deliberate attempt to make people think DdV is guilty, and in whose interest is this...?

[Fernandez]

[The government only got involved after the event because the media blew up what was a relatively minor infringement of airspace. My point was the disproportion of the punishment. If you argue that it needs criminal prosecution then this should be applied to everyone, not just an unfortunate who gets caught in the media glare because the Prime Minister's flying limo was nearby. CB]

Fair enough. There shouldn't be an indiscriminate application of the law. Pilots who violate restricted airspace are routinely investigated here by the FAA. If you violate military or high security areas, you face a criminal investigation. You cannot fly over the Capital or White House without being escorted down by F-16s.

On the other hand, there is a saying in the law that you take your plaintiffs as you find them. There is a reason prime ministers get heightened protection over every other joe blow in their sky-limo. Had the pilot not be 'liable' he wouldn't have to worry about the degree of damages.

[qwerty]

President Chirac used to get his to take off in the early evening and circle around France burning jet fuel before heading out to nearish destinations so he could get a peaceful sleep. CB

But it's a hell of a distance from the center of Paris to Le Bourget, especially in the rush hour traffic...

I've had a free ride in a (private) Falcon : one hour flight, three passengers = 8000/3 = 2666 €. Not bad, that's about what I'd have spent on a long distance flight (business class). Advantage of private plane: no customs or police controls that i was aware of.

[Daniel Strohl]

DOT,

Correct spelling : proxénétisme (pimping)
- proxy is a technical word used in Internet server matters :)

"and possibly a French readership"

DOT, I remember having read several (short) articles on the matter in French papers. However, the technical explanations given by CHARLES were mostly and unfortunately missing. As Charles puts it rightly : "The media thrive on fanning fears over air safety and non-specialist journalists usually get the aviation facts wrong". I would add "and some other facts as well" :)

[Daisy]

I still can't get over the fact that libel is criminal over there. Don't the cops have enough work to do?

[Romain]

The arrest warrant is a normal procedure after de Fillipis failed to respond to 3 summons by the judge. What is challenged is the way the arrest was executed, with disproportionate use of coercion : handcuffs, body search etc.
There are some guidelines on police procedures, but they were ignored in this instance are they are too often.

[dada]

http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=vvpgUyXGKKc

[Daniel Strohl]

Re : my post dated 1 DEC 17:14

Hereafter a link in which Liberation quotes the Justice Minister, Mrs. Dati, saying to the Sénat that the Liberation journalist didn't comply with three previously made summons and that therefore the judge was legally entitled to use the procedure which she used.

http://www.liberation.fr/medias/0101270107-affaire-libe-dati-legitime-l-interpellation

[Blendi Progri]

I too, am appalled, police needs to be kept on check and not let lose easily.

In UK there is a scandal, enlarging and evolving as we speak, how police raided the office of an MP and arrested him.

!

true, but scary.

When journalists and MP-s are arrested and beaten up (fr & uk) what chance do the rest of us have?

[Emilie]

and it will only get worse!

french criminal procedure is a real shame for anybody defending the human rights cause.

as a lawyer, I'm desperate explaining clients that before the police or the examining judges I can't do almost anything at all.

during the 'garde à vue' (police detention?) people arrested are only allowed to talk to a lawyer during 30 min!! while detention at police office can last 24 to 48 hours! It's like a mini guantanamo!

Talking about the examining judges, the law provides that they are supposed to examine "à charge' ET "à décharge"!! What a joke!

never saw a french examining judge taking into account on the same level arguments of the defence and police/prosecutor charges.

A few years ago, those judges were considered to be so severe (their favorite mean to get one's confessions is detention whatever the gravity of the charges) that we had to invent 'le juge de la liberté et de la détention'(JLD) to balance their severity, as one can stay in detention during three years before trial.

at least, the 'juge d'instruction' is not anymore as hyper powerful as he was before...but still remains superpowerful as the JLD is somehow an examining judge too who will try not to contradict his colleague. So it didn't help really to lower the number of people detained...

To conclude, IMO, on that specific topic, France has a lot to be ashamed of and I believe that we deserve the worst french bashing.

PS: one of french lawyers'favorite joke : 'I do trust in the justice of my country!'

[Featherstonehaugh]

The complaint is from someone found guilty of controlling prostitutes -he has sued the paper several times for defamation and lost each time -they reported his sentence of two years-supended. He is also very rich.
The convocations go to the Newspaper's lawyers and obviously something went wrong. Even Sarkozy admits that there has been a cock-up here.
You should explain the way MP's are treated in Britain before whining about Europe.

[dada]

http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=qCioreUDhJA&feature=related

http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=oYDzCzSiaz4&feature=related

[dada]

http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=WiX7GTelTPM&feature=related

[dada]

http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=H_1N2YF0_pc&feature=related

a sugar in your tea.

[Mauvezin]

>> Andrew
... have to deal with the locals.
*******************
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
May be , we (us, the French)have to leave our own country !???

[Mauvezin]

>>Alex
" France is good if you don't scratch its surface."
**********************
Easy
Can you scratch an other country surface .
We're fed up of those whimpering strangers.

[christophe]

As a former inner city teacher , brought up by family with the idea of 'arn't our police wonderful' ,sadly I have learn in life to agree with above comments 'NEVER trust the police'[it's the nature of the job of policeofficer.]Perhaps more people are finding that out now , not just criminals.

[christopher muir]

Those were the days, my friend
We thought they'd never end
We'd sing and dance forever and a day
We'd live the life we'd choose
We'd fight and never lose
For we were young and sure to have our way...

(I found this old British Council report):

On May 28, 1987, a single-engined Cessna 172 light aircraft flown by a 19-year-old West German amateur pilot, Herr Mathias Rust, made an unauthorized and unimpeded flight of more than 650 km from Helsinki (Finland) to the centre of Moscow, where it landed beside the walls of the Kremlin (the seat of the Soviet government) close to Red Square.

[Daniel]

This is shameful, and I, for one, definitely do not consider it small beer.
I'm glad that you've written about it. Even though France has historically had a tendency to centralization and concentration of power, surely the day has long since passed when this sort of behavior is required.
Even if this rich fellow got one of his buddies on the judicial bench to harass an editor, this is not the sort of behavior one expects from civilized people.
My beloved tales of Inspector Maigret will never be the same to me again(Insert melodramatic note here).

[Romain]

The guidelines on arrest procedures do exist :
http://www.cnds.fr/ra_pdf/reponses_nov_08/Avis_2007_130.pdf

This is another case of routinely ignoring them.
Sarko contradicted Dati and MAM, who did'nt find anything wrong in de Filippis treatment.
I bet a cabinet reshuffle is up for 2007, Sarko has already launched a recruiting campaign aimed at socialists. A very entertaining president lol.

[richard.jones]

The trouble is when you scratch the surface of France it always brings them up in a rash.

[sebastien]

CHRISTOPHE:
['NEVER trust the police'[it's the nature of the job of policeofficer.]Perhaps more people are finding that out now , not just criminals.]
You're absolutely right. They are undertrained and poorly paid, and many of them are brutal morons. I was once insulted, manhandled and kicked by two drunkards in a carpark in Avignon (they told me they didn't like "les bougnoules" although I am unmistakeably Caucasian, and said "on va te rabattre ton caquet, mec" although I hadn't said a word). Later I went to the police station to file a complaint. While I was waiting I saw the same two men come in and go through to the offices at the back: they were detective inspectors. It was like something out of a film. I changed my mind about filing a complaint - I had no witnesses - and left quietly.

[Francois D]

Emilie has said:
"french criminal procedure is a real shame for anybody defending the human rights cause."

Congratulations to you, hoping that you will not be, by this note, on an "edwige like" list (but CB deontology protects you).

Despite a good job from the parliamentary committee, consequences of Outreau judicial error have not been made: the "judge of instruction", often young and alone, remains the most powerful figure in France.

[dot king]

This morning, the story was still on the major section of the news, with a nice little Post Scriptum to illustrate how the police go OTT in inappropriate circumstances -

An exercise in "prevention", police - school relations, officers in a classroom in the Collège publique in Marciac (where the world-famous jazz festival is held each year) gave the pupils instructions: they were told that another officer with a dog was going to come into the room. They were to sit quite still and keep their hands on their tables and not try to touch it, while the dog sniffed their bags in search of drugs. Two girls were taken out of the room and made to empty their bags for inspection in the corridor.

Naturally, this was an exercise, a demonstration, but unannounced, and imagine it was your kid subjected to this.

We're a long way from the time when if you had a problem you could look for a policeman and everything would be OK.

From the above story comes only authoritarian testerone-loaded (even from "les fouilleuses") threat, not information, not protection, not security, not the transmission of information about police-work.

Here's a link to a local article, the Inter version is diffrent, not nearly as awful as the reality.

http://nogarojournal.imadiez.com/2008/11/25/marciac/

(For non-French bloggers, collège is children aged 11 - 15/16)

[Daisy]

Lets not allow governments to intimidate people like this. When I hear of a judge or politician abusing power in this way I report it on every internet site I can- from www.sucksalot.com to the London times....

The internet and free expiration threatens these miscreants. So, keep then on the defensive by expressing your views on-line.

[qwerty]

i won't say this is like abu ghraib but...almost? is it like US cops stopping and frisking not-even-traffic offenders? Like people suspected of being drug "mules" at airports?

in any case, it's shocking. some time ago a similar case was reported on France Info, involving an accountant who was suspected of fraud, which turned out to be unjustified. He went through the same humiliating fouille à corps (for alleged book-keeping errors!!!). The guy didn't have much of a "recours" and didn't get much publicity, apparently this case will lead to some reform (or so Sarko says)

[Lancia]

Wow...you should move to the USA...the press can write, or say anything about anyone and all they have to do is post a retraction on page 752.... and all is right!!!!

[peter kinsley www.peterkinsley.com]

Very few people really know how the police behave behind closed doors, but those who do have a bad experience will pass their outrage on to their children. In that leafy borough where General de Gaulle passed the war years, Happy Hampstead (champagne socialists and lobster thermidor liberals) in north London, an avuncular, beefy-faced police sergeant was sent to the local school to talk about road safety etc. At the end of his talk, the teacher asked: "Does anyone have a queston for the sergeant?" Silence. She asked again, and one little boy raised his hand looking rather fearful at the Sarge, and asked: "Are you a Nazi?"

[Pierre]

Je proteste!
An abusive Typepad's judge is violating my free speech right and wrongfully accusing me of being a spammer.

[Sorry Pierre. It must be something in the system. I'll try to find out why. It's published now. CB]

[Pierre]

I also find the disclaimer unnecessary. For two reasons.

First is that French bashing « a horreur du vide ». It therefore comes after Charles Bremner’s posts (empty of any trace) as naturally as the sun comes after the rain (or vice versa in England).

Second is that Charles Bremner’s report is right on every point.

Except one on my opinion : these abusive or excessive practices are not congenital to the inquisitorial system. They are, as Romain rightfully outined concerning the de Fillipis case, the result of a perverted application of the (modern) rules either by the police or some judges. It’s a question of personal psychology and collective culture. Eric de Montgolfier (Nice’s procureur famous for his free speech http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89ric_de_Montgolfier) often described it well concerning the "magistrature"'s docility.

It is of course « intellectually » much easier, and lazier, to blame the system as a whole and claim the natural superiority of the accusatoire procedure, to cry foul on all the juges d’instruction and repeat they are the most powerful persons in France. Very far from it. Remember Thierry Jean Pierre ( http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thierry_jean-pierre ), and ask Eva Joly ( http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Joly ), Eric Halphen (http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Halphen ) or Marie-Odile Bertella Geoffroy (http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie-Odile_Bertella-Geffroy. They are often (not only in financial affairs and corruption cases) isolated, pressurised, exhausted and hard working civil servants.

They can also in some cases prove to be blind, deaf and sectarian, or simply fearful. Those ones sometimes even take humiliating procedures against their owns. Here’s a reminder http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_L%C3%A9vy_(magistrat)

Emilie
Joke for joke here’s an american one appliable to (some) french lawyers as well : « How can you tell when a lawyer is lying? His lips are moving. » (PS I can raise my hand and say I ain’t no judge and have never been).

[Pierre]

It seems Typepad's anti spam brigade (meaner than french cops)did not like the wiki links. Too bad for those possibly interested by the judges I mentioned.

[qwerty]

Pierre
I've met Eric Halphen, he writes books now.

[Terry]

"De Filippis' alleged offence is that he was liable as publisher of Libération for a defamatory comment left by a reader on its internet site."

Im surprised they havent come for you Charles given some of my posts. Especially, my comment about Azloon and the sheep. I heard those sheep have retained counsel.

[azloon]

Terry

the american west is a land where 'men are men,' and sheep are afraid.

[John Gregory Flinn]

"There has been a steep increase in judges exercising their right to hold people overnight or longer for questioning on minor offences -- with no contact with lawyers."

I dont know how old, or recent the relating legislation to the two cases is, but it seems that the agressive application and mendacious
meaning is something new.
Whilst not wishing to frighten those posts of a gentle disposition, it does remind me of Alexander Solzhenitsyn's book "The Gulag Archipemlago" and his travails with article 58 of the Soviet Code - "Crimes against the State".
This was very broadly interpreted to include "intent, malingering and even being taken prisoner (by the Nazis)".
Clearly, the "crimes" in your reports might be interpreted as "intent to defame, or endanger (Fillons) life".....!
No penalty is pending - is it?

All those who vote for the main-stream political parties probably think they are merely voting for a nuance of liberal democracy.
They are mistaken.
Their votes are used to elect legislative fodder; where rules, regulations, procedures and institutions to enact the same are designed to limit our freedoms, and which is inevitably leading to a totalitarian entity.
So there!