Lawyers take to the streets to protest against Sarkozy

Sarkozy's comments where made following the death of Laëtitia Perrais

Members of the judicial profession around the country have been trying only urgent cases since Monday after Sarkozy criticised prosecutors in Nantes for being too lax.

Sarkzoy’s remarks came in light of the gruesome murder of Laëticia Perrais in the Loire-Atlantique department last month. The President, who was formerly a lawyer, slammed the authorities in the city for failing to protect the public from Tony Meilhon, a 31-year-old suspect who has been questioned by police over the kidnapping and murder of the 18-year-old.

The dismembered head and limbs of Perrais were found in an abandoned quarry last Tuesday (2 February), close to the town of Pornic, where she worked as a waitress. Meilhon who was released from prison in February last year, has been convicted for 15 offences ranging from theft to rape, which has seen him spend more than a decade of his life behind bars.

The often-crass Sarkozy vented his anger at the probation services in Nantes who had failed to assign a probation officer to Meilhon, in an error that the Ministry of Justice labelled as “dysfunctional”. “We have a duty to protect society from these monsters,” Sarkozy deplored. The head of the republic added that Meilhon was “presumed guilty”, defying the French constitutional acknowledgement of “innocent until proven guilty”.

Judges in Nantes have hit back at the President blaming a lack of funding and stretched resources as contributing factors in the mismanagement of the Meilhon incident. A Council of Europe report on judicial funding in 2010 found that France currently spends less of it GDP per head on judicial services than Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Unions in Nice have reiterated sentiments that the French legal system is under too much strain “In the Alpes-Maritimes we have around 50 people to deal with every 110 to 200 cases, it’s no longer manageable.” Leïla Lazouni, department secretary of the CGT for prison and probation officers said.

A survey carried out earlier this week showed that 65 per cent of the French public support the strikes.

TD

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