Many cases of sexual violence by CRS have been reported in France:
In 2003, three police officers from a Republican Security Company (CRS) were sentenced to seven years in prison for raping prostitutes in Paris in 2002 and 2003.
Romaric Leclercq, 28 years old, Yohann Mahé, 29 years old, and Cyril Dussart, 31 years old, were arrested at the hearing and sent to detention immediately. Dismissed from the police force since the discovery of the facts at the end of 2003, they have already spent six months behind bars during the investigation.
The three defendants were facing up to 20 years in prison for "gang rape by persons in authority. They admitted the facts at the hearing and apologized to the only complainant present at the trial, a 28-year-old Albanian woman.
Two other defendants, still police officers after a temporary suspension, were sentenced for complicity and non-indictment of crimes to one year suspended prison and three years suspended prison, with the second one being deprived of five years of civil rights.
The public prosecutor, Philippe Bilger, had requested sentences of eight to ten years in prison for the three main defendants, as well as two 18-month suspended sentences and two three-year suspended sentences for the other four. The representative of the prosecution had considered that the police officers had dishonored their uniform. "I take into account their repentance, the disastrous image they gave to the police and the stain, fortunately not ineffaceable, that they imposed on the police institution", said the public prosecutor in his indictment.
The defense lawyers argued that the defendants had been victims of negligence on the part of their superiors and the political context. The 2003 law penalizing "passive solicitation" had turned prostitutes into criminals, which, according to the lawyers, had encouraged police abuse.
The Albanian plaintiff, sent back to her country in 2004, came to Paris to testify against the defendants. "I am a woman and I have rights. I am not a sandwich"she explained.
Even though she was the only plaintiff, eleven acts of rape were retained in total and many others could not be prosecuted because the victims were not found. The trial showed that the acts were a common practice among some members of the CRS 7, a unit of Deuil-la-Barre (Val-d'Oise) assigned to the surveillance of roads on the outskirts of Paris and around the Stade de France.
The public prosecutor of the Paris Court of Assizes has given his opinion in the case of the rape of prostitutes by the CRS.
Thus, he asked for sentences ranging from eight years to ten years of criminal imprisonment for each of the three CRS tried for the rapes committed between 2002 and 2003 on prostitutes. The other four ex-CRS men face suspended sentences.
Philippe BligerThe lawyer at the Paris Court of Appeal describes their actions as follows: "They committed the worst", thus he designates Romaric Leclercq, Yohan Mahé and Cyril Dussart, who, with their heads down in the dock, listen. And yet their "repentance" plays slightly in their favor, probably also their immaturity at the time of the facts.
Stéphane Hirigoyen and Gilles Gainaux risk a 3-year suspended prison sentence, while Christophe Fradelin and Denis Godet could be punished with an 18-month suspended sentence.
The four are being prosecuted for "non-prevention of a crime" for having been present during some of the rapes, without having prevented or denounced them. In other words, they did not help the women who were being raped by other CRS.
For this type of crime, justice is used to clearly decide, ordering 15 to 20 years of imprisonment. The three main defendants were dismissed from the police force and the other four were temporarily suspended for 24 months, 18 of which were suspended. During the closing arguments, the public prosecutor Philippe Bilger drew the attention of the audience to the "exceptional character of the rapes", "the disastrous image of the police" that the accused gave, as well as "the stain fortunately not ineffaceable" imposed on the institution.
He also paid a tribute to a young woman who was raped and who became a civil party after having denounced the facts to the authorities in 2003. "She came to physically embody the pain and distress of the victims," he said.
The Irini case
Irini P., 28 years old, came especially from Albania, where she was expelled in 2004, to testify at the trial. Irini P's lawyer, on the morning of the trial, did not hesitate to set the record straight: "I heard that they were young losers left to their own devices. But there are how many millions of French people who are left to themselves?", she wondered, and continued: "Would everyone need a tutor to hear himself say: 'be careful, don't do that?
The rapes started in 2003, against Albanian girls who were working on the Maréchaux boulevards in Paris. Two girls told their suffering to an association helping prostitutes, "l'Amicale du Nid", and declared that they were raped by the police. Of course an investigation was launched by the police. It was then learned that these girls were victims of 11 rapes involving seven policemen of the 7th Republican Security Company (CRS) of Deuil-la-Barre in the Val d'Oise. The CRS at the time were between 23 and 26 years old.
Concluding the investigation, the IGS - Inspection Générale des Services, the police force, noted at the time "thatThat the events are not isolated and exclusively due to alcohol consumption, but are part of a widespread practice among several members of their chapter".
7 pleadings are expected from the defense.
On the second day of the trial of the seven police officers accused of "gang rape" of prostitutes or "complicity", it is time to repent.
On her bench, squeezed between a lawyer and her interpreter, Irini did not answer anything. Delivered to the court a few minutes before, the bruised testimony of this young Albanian of twenty-eight years, the only victim present at this trial, was sufficiently damning for the ex-officers of the CRS company of Deuil-la-Barre (Val-d'Oise), presumed authors of eleven rapes.
In a petrified silence, the young woman told everything. That famous night of April 8 to 9, 2003. At two o'clock in the morning, on the boulevard Ney, in Paris, a Twingo stopped at the height of Irini and her friend Diana.
"ID check!" Three policemen are on board. The young women hold out photocopies of a false passport and an asylum application. "I knew well that my papers were not good and I was afraid of being deported because of the Sarkozy laws."
Compelled, they get into the vehicle. Irini at the back, next to Romaric Leclerc. Diana in front, on Cyril Dussart's lap, while Yohann Mahé drives. It stinks of alcohol. Direction the "central police station", they are told. But at the Porte de la Chapelle, the vehicle took the A1 freeway, turned off and ended up parking in a remote parking lot. The Stade de France in the background. "I was terrified," Irini sobs.
Then come the interminable acts imposed by Romaric Leclerc. The pain of the young woman, the silent tears. "Go ahead, it's your job," the CRS encourages her when she begs him to stop. Outside, Dussart and Mahé exchange poor Diana. "They were just having fun without thinking about anything else. We were suffering."
Irini talks about the humiliation, but also about her revolt at having been treated like an "object". "I don't prostitute myself for pleasure, but I chose it. No client did something like that to me. I thought that the policemen had to protect..."
After two hours, the Twingo started up again and drove back into the darkness. "I really thought the worst, that they would kill us. Irini leaps outside, her sleeve torn off, pulls out her friend. Panicked, the two women cross the highway. "We stopped a truck that dropped us off at Porte de Clignancourt. The association l'Amicale du nid will finally collect her testimony, some time later, and will seize the General Inspection of Services. Irini had the presence of mind to note the license plate of the vehicle. It belonged to the fiancée of Yohann Mahé.
Since then, Irini has been deported to Albania. She lives with her family. Without child, without husband, without work. For a long time she refused to come to this trial. At the bar, she cries again: "In Albania, they will see my name, my face, they will learn that I was a prostitute... If they know, it's all over. With their heads in their shoulders, the three main defendants keep a low profile.
Not the only case...
Irina's case is not an isolated one. Eleven acts of rape have been charged against three police officers assigned to the surveillance of roads on the outskirts of Paris and around the Stade de France.
They used to go out at night on the boulevards des Maréchaux, outside their jurisdiction. Dressed in their uniforms, they took advantage of the opportunity to put pressure on prostitutes in an irregular situation. They would ask for reduced rates, and even "blowjobs and love" for nothing. "It was like having sandwiches at a reduced rate," Yohanna Mahé awkwardly conceded at the hearing.
Acknowledging the facts, they indicated that they were not aware that they were committing rape by threat or coercion since they were not brutal. They also claimed "stressful working conditions" to mitigate the importance of their acts as well as "the group effect". The three police officers were then indicted and placed in pre-trial detention.
Other cases of rape of prostitutes: https://www.leparisien.fr/faits-divers/trois-policiers-condamnes-a-des-peines-avec-sursis-pour-un-viol-sur-une-prostituee-30-11-2012-2369097.php
A lack of supervision
Released six months later, Romaric, Yohan and Cyril have since tried to lead a normal family life. They have had new children, and have become ambulance drivers, printers and temporary workers. But the facts committed in 2003 do not leave their minds.
Appearing free before the Paris court of assizes, the three defendants tried to explain what could have led them to commit such acts. Until these events, they were young men with no history who had joined the police force "to serve the country. Assigned to the CRS 7, they explained that they were left to their own devices within the company: "There is no supervision, it can quickly get out of hand.
This lack of coaching is the main point that the defense intends to rely on.
In spite of their regrets and their apologies pronounced on the bar towards Irina, the three men incur twenty years of criminal imprisonment.
