Monkey slurs aimed at French justice minister Christiane Taubira - not once, but twice

She might well be a seasoned politician, well-used to sparring with the best and worst of them, but the French minister of justice, Christiane Taubira, has had to face some pretty (perhaps not the best choice of words) odious comments over the past couple of weeks.

And, although opponents might claim otherwise, those comments have had nothing to do with her competence in fulfilling her ministerial portfolio and everything to do with her skin colour and origins.

Add captioChristiane Taubira (screenshot FranceTVinfo)

First up there was the infamous photo montage posted on the Facebook page of Anne-Sophie Leclere.

She's a candidate (or at least, she was) for the far-right Front National in next year's municipal elections and decided a touch of racism (although heavily in denial over such a definitiion when asked about it during a report on France 2's "Envoyé Spéciale") wouldn't go amiss.

Leclere posted a photograph on Facebook of a baby monkey alongside one of Taubira with the accompanying titles "18 months" and "Now".

"It's not racist," insisted the 33-year-old. 'The monkey in the photo remains an animal, the black [woman] is a human being," she said.

"I have friends who are black and that's not a reason to tell them that they are monkeys,' she continued in true FN fudge fashion, reiterating that she was not a racist but would "rather see Taubira on a tree among the branches than in the government."

The photo was eventually taken down. The FN suspended Leclere and dropped her as a candidate.



In the meantime Taubira, not exactly known for being one to mince her words, had reacted.

"We know what the FN thinks: the blacks in the branches of trees, Arabs in the sea, homosexuals in the Seine, Jews in the ovens and so on," Taubira said, describing the party's policies as "deadly and murderous".

It was a response which immediately drew the wrath of the FN with a call for Taubira to resign and the threat of legal action because, "Nothing justifies such an expression of hate against an entire party and its millions of voters?"

http://www.frontnational.com/2013/10/communique-de-presse-du-front-national-21/

Really? Not even being compared to a monkey?

Sound the bell for the end of round one in the category racial slurs.

Where the FN left off, those other mild-mannered democrats - the ones still opposed to same-sex marriage - continued.

Last Friday Taubira was on a visit to the western French town of Angers as part of her Tour de France, if you will, to explain how the reforms she wants to introduce next year will make the country's judicial system more accessible for everyone.

It was an opportunity also for a hundred or so members of "La manif pour tous", the movement which had opposed same-sex marriage to express their unhappiness with the minister who had steered the legislation through parliament.

Yes, even though it's the law, they remain quite within their rights to demonstrate their disaccord.

But the manner in which they did so was what the local online news site Angers Mag Info  suitably summed up as "pitiful".

They were there to greet her when she arrived at the town's Palais du Justice, and they brought their children along because, let's face it, they defend family values.

And they did that by chanting original and charming slogans such as "Taubira, casse-toi" (you may translate) or "Taubira, resign!"

Unruffled - well, over the months she must have become well used to such a reception - Taubira reportedly blew the demonstrators a kiss at the door of the building before she went inside.

But they were far from satisfied, changing position and upping the decibels somewhat as they continued shouting their "objections" and allowing the children to join in.

And that's really where any dignity their demonstration might have had, disappeared as the protest took a distinctly racist slant.

Because alongside "casse-toi" and "resign" the well-meaning parents taking part also allowed their children to fire off phrases through the megaphone such as "Taubira, you smell. Your days are numbered" with one 12-year-old brandishing a banana skin while shouting, "A banana for the monkey."

Apparently even some of those hardened chaps from the riot police were taken aback by the vitriolic nature of the language with one of them heard to comment that it "could be grounds for arrest as it constituted insulting a government minister.

The episode didn't go unnoticed by French parliamentarians though with both a former agriculture minister, Jean Glavany, and the prime minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault paying tribute to Taubira and denouncing all forms of racism.

"When we, the country's elected representatives, hear racist comments being made, we must not remain silent," said Glavany.

"We must express both our shame and disgust."

Trial opens of nurse accused of killing Alzheimer's patient

The trial has opened in France of Véronique Metelo, a nurse accused of fatally poisoning and robbing an elderly patient suffering from Alzheimer's.

On Tuesday the trial opened in Viry-Châtillon, a town in the southern suburbs of the French capital, of Véronique Metelo.

The 54-year-old nurse is accused of having administered a lethal dose of morphine and robbing Simone Bordenave, a patient she was looking after in 2007.

The 76-year-old was found dead in Metelo's home in August of that year just days after the nurse had convinced the elderly woman's son that his mother, who suffered from Alzheimer's, needed around-the-clock care and she would look after her personally.

Bordenave apparently died of cardio-respiratory failure but an autopsy revealed high doses of morphine, "twice the lethal level" according to the prosecution.

As well as administering the overdose of morphine, the prosecution says that Metelo also helped herself to €12,000 of her elderly patient's money, having her sign cheques and hand over her bank card which she then used to buy herself perfume, jewellery and household electrical goods;

As a report on TF1's prime time news on the opening of the trial highlighted, as far as the prosecution was concerned a number of questions remain unanswered.

Why, at the time, had Metelo been so insistent that the only way to look after Bordenave properly was to have the elderly woman live with her?

And why over the past couple of years the only answer she had given to explain the high levels of morphine revealed in the autopsy had been that she "didn't know"?

Speaking to reporters Metelo's lawyer, Patrick Arapian, insisted that the high levels of morphine had been the result of an error, and while cash withdrawals had been made they were far from being anywhere near €12,000.

"There's no denying that my client used some money to make personal purchases," he said.

"But the amounts are far less than has been claimed," he added.

The trial is expected to last until Thursday.

If found guilty, Metelo could face a maximum prison sentence of 30 years.

French Court's ruling in cases of Marc Machin and Loïc Sécher

Marc Machin and Loïc Sécher have more in common than just being French.

They've both spent time in prison (seven and nine years respectively) for crimes they, and others, maintained they had never committed: Sécher for the rape of a 13-year-old girl in 2000 and Machin for the murder of a woman in 2001.

And this week, for only the sixth time since 1945 the French Court of revision annulled the original sentences.

It's only a partial victory for both men though as the Court also decided that they must face a retrial.

For Sécher it'll be his third, and although he was freed on Tuesday and is "presumed innocent" until his case is heard again, he remains on probation.

Machin, who was released in October 2008, is currently back behind bars awaiting trial on a different charge of sexual aggression.

There are parallels in the two cases, both of which perhaps highlight how reluctant the French justice system is to admit that mistakes could have been made.

Indeed the Court could have decided to acquit both men, but instead "took the path of prudence" in ordering a retrial in both cases.

Sécher was sentenced to 16 years back in 2003 for the rape of a 13-year-old girl in 2000 in the village of La Chapelle-Saint-Sauveur in Loire-Atlantique in western France.

His accuser, who has since been recognised as being "psychologically disturbed", came forward in April 2008 and in a letter to France's chief prosecutor, retracted her original statement.

"Sécher had not raped her," she wrote. "And her conscience no longer allowed her to live with the knowledge that an innocent man was sitting in prison."

In October 2008 a commission of judges (la commission de révision des condamnations pénales) decided that "a miscarriage of justice had not yet been proven", and that more evidence was required before Sécher could be released.

Machin was arrested in December 2001 for the murder of Marie-Agnès Bedot. Apparently all the evidence pointed towards him and while being questioned he admitted guilt - but later retracted his confession and claimed his innocence.

After being charged, he was put on trial and three years later found guilty and sentenced to 18 years.

In March 2008 however another man, 34-year-old David Sagno, admitted that he had murdered Bedot after turning himself in to the police and saying he needed "to ease his conscience".

Further investigation revealed that not only was Sagno's DNA found on the clothes of Bedot, but also on the clothing of another woman, Maria-Judith Araujo, who was murdered in May 2002 - in exactly the same spot.

Tuesday's historic decision - it was the first time the Court has ruled on two cases of "presumed innocence" on the same day - is perhaps proof, if it were needed, as to how slowly those proverbial wheels of French justice turn particularly in cases where the weight of evidence would appear to suggest that the original conviction was an incorrect one.

And it left the family, supporters and lawyers of both men disappointed and exasperated.

"We expected an outright quashing of the original sentence," Sécher's lawyer, Eric Dupond-Moretti, said after the hearing.

"But I'm completely confident of the outcome of a future trial," he added.

"For me it's obvious that he should be cleared," said Machin's father (also called Marc) of his son.

"And it's inconceivable that another trial will find him guilty," he added.

"Holding another trial is a waste of taxpayers' and public money."

The overturning of a sentence through a retrial has only taken place six times in France since 1945.

The most recent case was that of Patrick Dils, who in 1989 was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of two children.

A retrial was ordered and in 2002 he was found not guilty.

French justice fails in the murder of Tanja Pozgaj

Tanja Pozgaj should be alive today enjoying life with her 18-month-old son Ibrahima.

Instead she's dead, murdered by her former partner, Mahamadou Doucoure, a man she had reported to the police and local authorities on several occasions as being violent and threatening.

Her family wants to understand why nobody seemed to listen to her pleas.

The justice minister, Michèle Alliot-Marie, has launched an inquiry into want went wrong and how a system so tragically failed to protect a woman who had sought help.

Because given the facts that have emerged since Pozgaj's body was found, there's surely no doubt that there was a failure within the system.

The fate of the 26-year-old first made the headlines here in France on Tuesday, when she was found stabbed to death at the apartment she shared with Ibrahima, her 18-month-old son, in the town of Fontenay-sous-Bois in the eastern suburbs of Paris.

Ibrahima was missing, and for only the ninth time since it was introduced in 2006, an alerte enlèvement (the equivalent of an Amber alert) was launched nationwide to find him.



Police suspected that he had been taken by his father and Pozgaj's former partner, Doucoure.

The public was warned not to intervene but to report any sightings or pass on any information they had as to the whereabouts of the 28-year-old Doucoure, as he was considered dangerous and possibly armed.

Ibrahima was found safe and sound late on Tuesday evening, Doucoure taken into custody where he later admitted to having killed Pozgaj, and the alert lifted.

So a successful conclusion to the alerte enlèvement, but of course not really as far as Pozgaj's family was concerned, who insisted that her death could have been prevented - if only the authorities had listened and acted.

"My sister filed numerous complaints, and it was only after the 20th or 30th time that they took her seriously," her brother, Sacha said on Thursday.

"With everything they knew, why didn't they protect her?"

Last October Pozgaj went to see Jean-François Voguet, the mayor of Fontenay-sous-Bois.

The 26-year-old was armed with documents and testimonies of complaints she had already made to the police "proving" that she had been repeatedly threatened by her former partner.

What she wanted was to be "rehoused in another town" within the same (administrative) département of Val-de Marne in which Fontenay-sous-Bois is located

Voguet reportedly took her case seriously and a month later wrote a letter a month later to the Prefecture of the département urging that Pozgaj's request be dealt with immediately for both her sake and that of her son, and attaching all the legal documents.

He never received a reply.

It's surely hard to argue against members of Pozgaj's family or their lawyers when they accuse the judicial system of having failed in its duty to protect the 26-year-old.

Just last week Pozgaj returned to see Voguet to repeat her request to be rehoused.

Even though Doucoure had recently received a four-month suspended sentence and a court order preventing him from seeing or approaching Pozgaj, and in fact wasn't even supposed to enter the same département, he was still sending her threatening text messages.

"For six months Tania systematically went to the police to report the threats she was receiving," Yasmina Mechoucha Robin, a lawyer for the family said.

"The most recent one quite simply said 'I am going to kill you'.

The problems of Modane - a French town and a laxative

It's winter here in Europe, just to state the obvious.

And of course that means snow and enough of it hopefully for French ski resorts and surrounding towns to do a booming business in tourism.

But one small town in the département of Savoie in the French Alps has other thoughts on its mind at the moment as its elected officials decide whether to take a drugs manufacturer to court because of an advertising campaign that potentially damages the image of the townsfolk.

Intrigued? Then read on.

The town is Modane with a population of almost 4,000 and perhaps best known for its international TGV station as it's close to the border with Italy.

The company is Cooper, "a laboratory dedicated to the needs of pharmacists," as its website explains, and which counts amongst its products a certain laxative called...yes you've guessed..."Modane".

The problems began for the mayor of the former - the town that is - when he had his attention drawn to the advertising campaign of the latter - the manufacturer of the drug offering relief for constipation - which started a couple of weeks ago.

It apparently contains a visual which is a little too suggestive in which the drug is heralded as promised relief for bowel difficulties to someone seated just a tad too long on the "throne".

Now before you start cracking all the same sort of jokes that have been entertaining some corners of the French media, this is a serious business as far as the town's mayor Jean-Claude Raffin is concerned and he's currently considering whether to resort to the courts to avoid any "confusion" and "embarrassment" that might ensue.

And he could well have the weight of French justice on his side as the names of villages, towns municipalities and départements are protected by law in France to ensure that there's no "infringement on the earlier rights of a local authority including its name, image or reputation."

According to the regional newspaper Le Dauphiné libéré, an appeals court in Paris interpreted that two years ago in a ruling to mean that "intellectual property cannon be adopted as a trade mark for a product that might contravene those rights."

If you're up to it you can read an explanation of the law here in French.

But as far as Cooper is concerned, the product in no way breaches that ruling, as its president, Pierre-André Martel, explains.

"The drug first came on to the market back in 1962," he says.

"But it was no longer covered by medical insurance for reimbursement from 2006 and so since then we have been advertising it."

One to follow?

Supreme Court rules pornographic images at work aren't illegal

La Cour de Cassation in France, or the country's Supreme court, has overturned a decision made by an industrial tribunal and an appeals courts which had both upheld the dismissal of an employee who downloaded pornographic images at work.

The case dates back to 2002, when a worker at the carmaker Peugeot Citroën in the western city of Rennes was fired after pornographic images he had downloaded were discovered on computer at work.

He took his case to an industrial tribunal and to the Court of Appeal in Rennes, but in both instances the ruling went in favour of the employer.

His last chance was la Cour de Cassation which, it has been revealed, last month ruled in his favour.

It accepted his arguments that the employer had no right to access what were private and personal files and that saving images on his computer had in no way had an impact on his ability to do his job.

"The saving of three files containing pornographic pictures, which were not criminal in nature, did not constitute grounds that would justify dismissal," the Court ruled, adding that the outcome of the case would have been different had the images been "unlawful" such as ones of a paedophile nature.

In effect the ruling found that the employee had been unfairly fired and the case has been referred the matter back to the appeals court to determine how much compensation he is now entitled to.

The case of a French man called for jury selection for his own trial

The French judicial system is a notoriously cumbersome creature and of course, as in many other countries, has been is prone to making mistakes, or at least taking a heck of a long time in admitting to, and then correcting them.

Take the case of Loïc Sécher, sentenced to 16 years for a crime he never committed, according to post-trial testimony by the victim.

Or Marc Machin, who spent six years in prison for a murder perpetrated by someone else.

Or Antonio Madeira, a man wrongly found guilty of raping his daughter, Virginie, and after serving six years was released - conditionally. He's still "guilty" in the eyes of the law even though in 2006 Virginie not only retracted her accusations, but published a book "J'ai menti" ("I lied") in which she admitted that she had made the whole story up.

And then of course there was the infamous Outreau child abuse trial, arguably one of France's biggest miscarriages of justice.

There's general agreement among political parties that the French justice system need overhauling, but reform is hard and appears to be in its own right a long and painful process.

Whatever eventually gets through parliament, let's hope it ensures that cases such as those mentioned (and many others of course) won't happen again, and that it can also avoid the administrative mix-up that occurred before the recent trial of a 66-year-old man in the town of Parthenay in western France.

He was accused of sexually molesting a boy between 1994 and 1996 - a charge to which he admitted after the victim revealed what had happened in 2006.

Yes those proverbial "wheels of justice" grind just as slowly here in France as anywhere else.

The trial was set to begin on December 10, but first a jury had to be chosen.

And among those called for selection on November 30...yes you see where this is going don't you, especially as the title has rather given it away...was the accused.

Not surprisingly, he ignored the summons and was fined €150 for not appearing for selection; a sum that was eventually lifted after the court realised the error it had made.

It might not be a tale on the scale of the miscarriages of justice that have continued to plague the system over the years, but perhaps it's an indication that something is not quite right even at the very core of the process itself.

Just a thought.

French motorcyclist fined for wearing contact lenses

All right the headline is a little misleading as will become clear. But in essence it's what happened.

Once again it's time to say "road users in France beware".

After the recent case of a motorist being fined (€22) for smoking behind the wheel of his car, comes the story of a motorcyclist being pulled over for not "having glasses about his person" - to put it in good "police speak".

It happened last Tuesday on the streets of the French capital as Jérôme, an engineer, set out on his motor scooter to an appointment at the dentist.

At one point on his journey he ran a traffic light as it turned amber to "avoid braking too suddenly". But as (bad) luck would have it a couple of police officers saw him and he was stopped.

Now, what would have been a standard infraction with a possible €22 fine quickly escalated to something a little more absurd as he was asked for his papers, which the 37-year-old duly handed over.

Jérôme you see is near-sighted and as such required by law to wear glasses, or at least have them somewhere in the vehicle when driving, although the language on his licence puts it in a more gobbledygook fashion than that.

At least that's how the officers on duty interpreted the law.

Well he wasn't wearing glasses, but he was wearing contact lenses, which you might be thinking would have conformed with the sense of what was actually written on his licence.

Er....think again.

Because he didn't have a supplementary pair of glasses with him, one of the police officers handed Jérôme a €90 fine and lopped three points from him for "driving a vehicle without respecting the restrictions mentioned on his licence."

What's more he also advised him to "read the highway code again."

And that's exactly what Jérôme did, but he couldn't find the exact text to which the officer was referring and has decided to contest the fine.

"I don't consider it to be justified," he said.

"I'm not a danger to society and besides without lenses I don't see anything."

He's not alone in thinking the officer overreacted and has of Jean-Baptiste Iosca, a lawyer specialising in the rules of the road and traffic contraventions.

"The law requiring all drivers to carry a pair of glasses in the glove compartment of the vehicle was repealed in 1997," he said.

"I dealt with a similar case in May this year and my client was not charged."

Um. Who should it be Jérôme rereading the highway code?

Justice for Mambo - the French dog set on fire and left to die

A second online petition has been launched to gather support for "Justice for Mambo", the three-year-old dog set alight by two people in the southern French village of Espira-de-l'Agly in August this year.

Signatures are being gather to demand that the main perpetrator of the crime, a 17-year-old adolescent and therefore a minor before the eyes of the law, be handed down the maximum penalty possible when he stands trial in December.

His accomplice, a 22-year-old woman, has already been sentenced to six months in prison for complicity in an act of brutality and cruelty after she admitted holding down Mambo while the teenager poured gasoline over the three-year-old mongrel and then set him alight.

The reason the two gave for such a senseless crime? Reportedly they were "bored and had nothing better to do."

The story of Mambo is one that has been making the headlines in France for a couple of months now and he has become something of a star in this country.

The plight of the three-year-old mongrel has already mobilised support among the French public - and for just cause.

The act of sheer cruelty left him with third degree burns to 50 per cent of his body and for a while it wasn't certain whether he would survive or have to be destroyed.

The week following the incident over 200 people took to the streets of Espira-de-l'Agly to protest, and an online petition (now closed) was launched with over 13,000 people signing demanding "Justice for Mambo".

Among the signatories were the country's former first lady, Bernadette Chirac, the ex-international football star, actor Alain Delon and animal activist, Brigitte Bardot.

A well-known television and radio presenter, Michel Drucker, volunteered to meet the veterinary bills.

When Mambo was first being treated, the vets were unable to remove the bandages without putting him under anaesthetic.

He has since made slow and painful progress - remarkable given the extent of his burns ) and although he still requires sedation when being handled, as you can see from the accompanying video with a lot of TLC he's well on the road to recovery.



With him throughout has been the woman who found him in the first place, Dany Goizé.

The 59-year-old restaurant owner and volunteer for the SPA has been at the forefront of the Mambo campaign, raising money, answering letters and getting the online petitions up and running.

Goizé and her husband already have another rescue dog, and Mambo can expect a heartfelt welcome in his new home.

"If he wants a kennel, he'll have one," said Goizé

"And if he prefers to sleep in my bed, then that's where he'll sleep."

Belgium - Baby "forgotten" in car all day dies

Summer has arrived in Europe and with it once again another of what seems to be an all-too-often reported and at the same time incomprehensible tragedy - that of a baby left in a car all day.

On Monday police in the Belgian town of Louvain confirmed that an 11-month-old girl died last week of dehydration after her father had left her in the back seat of his vehicle while he was at work.

He reportedly forgot beforehand to drop his daughter Britt off at the crèche, and she remained in the car all day - with the outside temperature at around 21 degrees.

Her body was discovered later by her mother when, as was her habit, she went to take the baby seat from the husband's car before driving to the crèche to collect her daughter.

Reading or hearing reports of animals left in cars is surely bad enough. Ignorance perhaps could be an explanation as to why owners often mistakenly assume that a few moments spent away from the vehicle won't do any harm.

However as any animal lover will surely know, and even those who don't own a pet would probably realise, the temperature inside a vehicle can rise quickly, even when it's not high summer. And the outcome is inevitable.

But when it comes to "forgetting a child" it's perhaps harder to understand what's going through - or better put, not going through - the parent's mind.

Last summer in France within the space of a month three separate cases made the national headlines (you can read more details here).

Two of them mirrored last week's Belgian tragedy; professional fathers leaving their children alone in the car after being "distracted" or "forgetting".

In the third, that of a mother leaving her two-and-a-half-year-old girl in the back seat while she did some last-minute shopping, the actions of passers-by avoided the repetition of another family tragedy.

At the time those incidents gave rise to plenty of debate as to why or how they could have occurred.

Burn out, a moment of absence and the pressures of modern life seemed to be at least to be part of the explanation offered up by experts who said that such incidents were more frequent than might at first be imagined.

"For sure these are not isolated cases, but usually they don't end in such a dramatic way," the child psychiatrist Sylvie Angel said in an interview in the weekly news magazine L'Express after the death of two-and-a-half-year-old Yannis in July last year and just a week later that of three-year-old Zoé.

A view backed up at the time by Jean-Michel Muller, president of the Association of Paediatricians of Nice Côte d'Azur, who said that it could happen to anyone.

"If you ask those to whom this has happened, they know that children shouldn't be left alone in the car, but at that particular moment their minds are elsewhere, they have some other problem," he said.

That "moment of absence" was also how Eric Allarousse accounted for having left his son, Yannis, in the car when he appeared in court last December to face charges of involuntary homicide.

It was a trial, which in itself demonstrated a difference in approach between France and Belgium to what is undoubtedly in all cases a family tragedy.

In France both fathers were initially charged with involuntary homicide, with the case of Allarousse going to trial because the public prosecutor wanted to " make public opinion more aware of the dangers and prevent similar incidents happening."

In Belgium though, the justice system seems to be showing a little more compassion for the family with Louvain's assistant prosecutor, Philippe Fontaine, saying no charges would be made.

"This isn't a case of a child being mistreated, but one of a regrettable accident," he said.

Let's hope it's the last such accident to occur here, in Belgium or in any other country for that matter.

Scientology in the dock

Once again the church of Scientology faces a legal battle in France with the opening of a trial on Monday accusing the organisation of fraud.

It's a case which, should the courts rule against it, could result in the church receiving an outright ban here according to the headlines in many of the country's national daily newspapers.

This time around it's the church itself that's on trial, along with seven individuals charged with illegally prescribing medication that ordinarily can only be obtained with a prescription.

Although Scientology has faced French justice in the past, most often it has been individual defendants that have been on trial rather than the organisation itself.

At the centre of the current trial is a 43-year-old (unnamed) woman who claims the organisation "fraudulently" persuaded her to spend at least €20,000 on medication.

She maintains she was first offered a free personality by members of the church outside a metro station in the French capital back in 1998.

But over the months that followed, and after enrolling, she spent all her savings on "purification packs", books medicines and an "electrometre", an instrument which is supposedly used "to measure galvanic skin response in patients".

As far as the French media is concerned little debate is expected during the trial as to whether Scientology is a religion or a sect - under French law it is clearly defined as the latter.

Instead the case is expected to focus on whether it tries to make money fraudulently.

Unlike neighbouring Spain, which last year ruled that the church could in effect be officially recognised as a religion, France categorises Scientology as a commercial organisation.

It figures on a list of groups defined as "sects" and is under permanent government surveillance.

The current trial is expected to last three weeks.

Verdict due in "murder" trial of wife who "disappeared" WITH UPDATE SEE END

There are two high profile court cases making the headlines here in France at the moment.

The first is that of Jacques Viguier, a law professor accused of murdering his wife, Suzanne, nine years ago.

A verdict is expected on Thursday afternoon.

The other concerns the death in 2006 of Ilan Halimi, a 23-year-old Jewish man, who was kidnapped by a gang and tortured over a period of three weeks.

The trial of the gang-leader and 26 other accused opened in Paris on Thursday and is expected to last a couple of months.

You can read more about it here.

For the moment though, back to the Viguier trial and the accusation that he murdered his wife.

The main protagonists are Viguier, the husband with a reputation for being something of a "ladies' man" and Suzanne, a wife, tired of her husband's infidelities, who had taken a lover herself.

The last time anyone saw Suzanne Viguier was in the early hours of the morning on February 27, 2000.

That was when Olivier Durandet - her lover - dropped her off at the home she shared with her her husband and three children.

Viguier waited until March 1 before informing the police of his wife's "disappearance" and a week later an investigation was opened.

And suspicion quickly fell on Viguier, who was taken into police custody, and spent nine months in detention.

Because it was during the course of their investigations that the police uncovered a number of elements that not only gave the case something of the flavour of an Alfred Hitcock movie, but also pointed, as far as the prosecution was concerned, to Viguier's guilt.

The couple for example, although they still shared the family home, no longer slept together in the same bedroom.

Then there was the mattress for example - the one Suzanne slept on. It was nowhere to be found.

Viguier initially claimed he had sent it away to be cleaned in readiness for his wife's return, but later changed his story and insisted that he had thrown it away at a local tip.

When the police returned from the dump with a partially burnt mattress, which didn't exactly match the description, Viguier confirmed that that it was the one he had thrown away.

Police also found traces of Suzanne's blood on the staircase and the bath of the couple's home.

None of her personal effects were missing. In fact she had apparently even left the house without her glasses.

But the fact still remained - and does until today - that no body has been found.

Viguier has always maintained his innocence, and during the trial he has had the support of the couple's three children.

Clémence, now 19 and twins Guillaume and Nicolas, 17 have all testified over the past week solidly supporting their father.

"Just as others have done, I've tried to imagine that my father could be guilty but I just don't think he did it," Clémence told the court - a feeling echoed by both her brothers.

And even his mother-in-law, Claude Petit-Lamarca, the mother of the supposed murder victim, testified before the court that she believed Viguier to be innocent.

A verdict in the trial is expected on Thursday afternoon, with the prosecution asking for 15-20 years behind bars if Viguier is found guilty.

UPDATE

Viguier acquitted - found not guilty on all three counts; voluntary homicide, intentional violence towards his wife, and violence against his wife without the intention of killing her.

French justice maintains an "innocent" man is still "guilty"

Sometimes it must be hard for those outside of France to understand the workings of this country's judicial system.

But there again for those living here, it's surely not always particularly easy.

Last year two separate cases - those of Loïc Sécher and Marc Machin - showed how innocent men had spent time behind bars for crimes that had either never taken place (Sécher) or for which they had been wrongly sentenced (Machin).

And on Monday, once again the French system showed how reluctant it is to admit possible miscarriages of justice.

The latest case concerns Antonio Madeira - now 55 - and his daughter, Virginie.

In 2001 Madeira was sentenced to 12 years in prison after being found guilty of raping his 14-year-old daughter. She testified that he had sexually abused her from the age of six.

But in 2006 Virginie, then aged 21, not only retracted her accusations, but published a book "J'ai menti" ("I lied") in which she admitted that she had made the whole story up.

"I decided to write this book to show that my father is innocent and this is the only solution I've found," she said in interviews at the time.

To attract the attention of her classmates, Virginie said she had "pretended to have been the victim of sexual abuse," and it was a story she had repeated to police and the courts before her father was found guilty and sentenced.

After serving six years behind bars Madeira was released - conditionally - and his lawyers sought to have the case retried based on new evidence.

But that first request and the most recent one, to the commission of revision of the penal judgments were both turned down.

This time around it was because as far as the commission was concerned, the retractions of the daughter and her battle over several years to prove the innocence of her father, including the publication of a book were "not credible when compared to the accusations".

It also insisted that Madeira had at one point admitted the crimes of which he had been accused and that the testimony from experts that showed gynaecological tests proved Virginie was a virgin were "inconclusive".

The overturning of a sentence through a retrial has only taken place six times in France since 1945. The most recent case was that of Patrick Dils, who in 1989 was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of two children.

A retrial was ordered and in 2002 he was found not guilty.

For Madeira's lawyer, Michaël Doulikian, his client's case is a clear example of how slowly the French judicial system works, and how unwilling it is to admit an error has been made.

"Instead of recognising that there had been a miscarriage of justice and ordering a retrial, the commission has compounded the initial mistake," he said.

"Madeira will be found not guilty because his innocence and the virginity of his daughter have both been established," he added, promising that there would be a third request for a retrial submitted soon.

French justice condemns mother's "mercy" killing

Sometimes it seems justice can get it wrong - and sometimes it gets it right.

You judge for yourselves which way around it is in the following case - one in which French justice applied the law, which states that individuals do not have the right to take the life of another.

In April this year Lydie Debaine was acquitted of the murder of her daughter, Anne-Marie, in May 2005, even though she had always admitted killing her.

The Advocate General appealed that decision and brought the case to trial again this week - the verdict, a two-year suspended sentence for the 65-year-old.

Her daughter, Anne-Marie, was 26 years old when she died, but with a mental age of five. She was severely physically and mentally handicapped and needed the around-the-clock care of her mother, who gave up work to look after her.

Anne-Marie was in constant pain, incontinent, had severe headaches and frequent bouts of epileptic fits. Medical records also documented that her physical health was deteriorating.

"It was 26 years of anguish," said Debaine's husband, who although he didn't condone his wife's act, had "forgiven" her.

During the first trial Debaine acknowledged that she had killed her daughter by administering drugs and drowning her in a bath tub, but maintained that she had done it as an act of compassion.

"I didn't do it because she was handicapped, I did it because she was suffering," she said.

"It was and act of love. My daughter spent day after day without sleeping."

And that was once again her defence during the second trial this week - an appeal the Advocate General had sought to overturn the original jury's ruling because "such a verdict could act as an encouragement to others to take the lives of handicapped people."

Even though the Advocate General in the second trial was at one point reportedly reduced to tears and recognised that Debaine had been a "courageous mother", he insisted that it was important that handicapped adults be protected.

"I represent all young handicapped people so that such a thing never happens (to them)," said Michel Debacq.

"It's not possible to give up in these cases, that's simply not just," he added.

Debaine made no comment after Tuesday's verdict. But her lawyer, Cathy Richard, said that although not exactly satisfied with the decision, it was the minimum sentence that could have been given, and in that sense was symbolic.

"She's too exhausted to react," said Richard.

"She's disappointed, that's for sure, but she also has the feeling that the Advocate General actually listened and understood," she added.

Sarkozy on ice - a law suit in the offing?

Oh la la, how will the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, react to the latest advertising campaign by the German all-news television channel Ntv?

Take a look at the accompanying picture and you'll see how the station is using Sarkozy's image to promote itself in some magazines and newspapers in Germany.

As you can see the smiling face of the French president is superimposed on the body of an appropriately clad (female) figure skater in a classically artistic pose with the title "From the Elysée to ice skating" and the caption underneath reading "Ntv viewers don't just get the most important political and business news, but also exciting reports and documentaries - in fact everything you need to be able to join in the discussion."

Sarkozy of course has made it something of a habit of bringing civil suits in this country - six so far during his 18 months as president - and he hasn't hesitated in resorting to French justice to prove his point.

They include most famously perhaps the recent case of the voodoo doll and the one earlier this year of Ryanair. In both instances Sarkozy argued that there had been unauthorised misuse of the president's image.

So will he now be tempted to stretch his legal reach as far as Germany? After all he is currently the biggest cheese in the European Union as France's term in the 27-nation bloc's six-month rotating presidency still has a few weeks left to run.

Admittedly Ntv's publicity campaign has only just started to appear in German newspapers and magazines such as the weekly Der Spiegel.

But those same magazines are also widely available throughout France, and already sections of the media here have caught hold of the story and reprinted images of the "dancing president".

Perhaps though he should take some heart from the fact that he's not the only head of state to be featured in the channel's campaign.

He's in the most regal of company as there is also another advertisement featuring the United Kingdom's Queen Elizabeth II, dressed as a trade union official, waving a red banner with the headline "From monarch to minimum salary".

The campaign is part of an attempt by the channel to give it a "younger, fresher, and friendlier" appeal according to the Ntv's communications director, Christoph Hemmerschmidt, and it's being accompanied by some on-air changes to its programming.

The privately operated German language 24-hour news channel is a partner station of CNN, widely available throughout France too on satellite.

"We've had some great feedback from this campaign," Hemmerschmidt told the German press.

"Nicolas Sarkozy is very well known (here in Germany) and in a sense he represents foreign policy".

There has been no word yet from the Elysée palace - Sarkozy's official residence as president of France - on whether he's actually seen the advertisement.

And Buckingham palace in London has not yet made a comment either.

French justice condemns silence and indifference in child abuse case

The verdict is in on the case of the death of five year old Marc, who died in January 2006 after being beaten and tortured by his step father, David Da Costa.

On Thursday a court in the northern French town of Douai, convicted Da Costa for murder and found the boy's mother, Isabelle Gosselin, guilty of complicity. He received a life sentence, she will spend the next 30 years behind bars.

But they weren't the only ones in the dock in a case which brought to trial not only those who had played a direct role in Marc's death, but also those who had done nothing to prevent it from happening, even though they should and could have done.

There were also sentences handed down to seven other people on trial for failing to assist a person in danger.

They included Marc's grandparents, and his aunt and uncle - all of whom received a three year suspended sentence, and a childminder, who was also a close friend of the mother. She was given a one year suspended sentence.

And then as reported previously here, there were the two doctors, Christian Tirloy and Michel Vellemans. They were each given three year suspended sentences and fines of €60,000 and €75,000 respectively.

Both of them had seen Marc in the weeks preceding his death but had accepted his mother's explanations that he was self harming and had failed, as far as the court was concerned, to examine him properly. An autopsy showed that had they done so, they would have discovered the full extent of his injuries.

As a reminder of how much Marc had suffered, that autopsy revealed that he had died of a cerebral haemorrhage caused by multiple punches to the head. But it also showed that he had fractured ribs, bruising to his back and other scars including cigarette burns and scratches covering the whole of his body.

When confronted during the trial with a summary of Marc's injuries, one of doctors - Vellemans - who had seen the boy just eight days before he died, was asked how he had missed any physical signs of injury and why he had failed to carry out a proper examination.

After all that autopsy showed that at the time of the last appointment the boy must have had difficulty walking and had a fractured pelvis and ribs .

"I don't have any explanation," Vellemans told the court. "I should have done (examined him) - nothing else would have been possible".

It was a testimony that evidently made little sense to the court, and was as difficult to understand as their reaction, expressed through one of their defence lawyers, Vincent Potie, after the court's ruling to fine and sentence them.

"They're shocked and overcome," said their lawyer, Vincent Potie. "They find it appalling that what they thought they were doing in fulfilling their role as doctors, has now been defined as a crime."

Perhaps the most important outcome of the trial and the media coverage it has received over the past couple of weeks here, was not the conviction of Da Costa and Gosselin - those were pretty much a foregone conclusion from the start.

Instead it was to open up a discussion and bring to public attention the responsibility of those indirectly involved in the death of Marc - those who knew or should have known what was going on, but said nothing or were, for whatever reason, unable to say anything.

And to show that as far as the law is concerned, silence and indifference are unacceptable and such a case should be preventable, as the public prosecutor Luc Frémiot said on national radio afterwards.

"It's a reminder of what should be the norm - to repeat to people that they need to, and should do something when they see cases of child abuse," he said

"Everyone has to open their eyes. We're all concerned with this problem of violence and we all need to do something about it."

Enfance et partage TV spot

Sarkozy's voodoo doll remains on shop shelves

The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has failed in his attempt to have a voodoo doll in his image withdrawn from circulation.

A Paris court has ruled that it can remain on sale.

Sarkozy had instructed his lawyers to file a law suit claiming that the doll was a "misuse of the president's image" and demanding it be withdrawn.

But on Wednesday a court ruled that the "non-authorised representation of the image of Nicolas Sarkozy neither constituted an affront on the human dignity (of the president) nor a personal attack."

The doll, as reported here, comes as part of a kit, complete with 12 needles and an instruction manual on how to use it.

It includes such delightful quotes, characteristic and policy decisions from the French president such as; "The end of advertising on public television, "Work more to earn more" or the infamous faux pas during his visit to the annual agricultural fair earlier this year when he told a visitor who refused to shake his hand to "Get lost you stupid (expletive deleted)" and invites users to stick pins in the appropriate place.

It has been on sale since the beginning of October, but through his lawyer, Thierry Herzog, Sarkozy had protested that he had exclusive rights to his own image.

While acknowledging that the doll hardly represented to best of taste, the court maintained that users couldn't "take seriously the procedure and believe that they were indeed practising voodoo."

It also stressed that both Sarkozy and his opponent in last year's presidential run-off, Ségèlone Royal (who also has a similar doll on sale) had both put played heavily to the electorate in terms of focussing on their public image as part of their promotional campaign.

Royal - who had not taken legal action against the manufacturers - said that she welcomed the court's decision as "good news".

K&B, the company which has manufactured and distributed the manuals and dolls (Sarkozy - 20,000, Royal, 15,000) will be allowed to continue selling the items.

Herzog has not yet said whether Sarkozy will be appealing the court's ruling.

Parents and doctors on trial over child abuse death

Sadly the story of the death of five-year-old Marc is one too often repeated both here in France and around the world.

But what's most striking in the trial that opened on Monday in the northern French town of Douai, is that not only his parents stand accused of his death, but two doctors - in other words those who should have been best positioned to protect him - are also facing prosecution.

Marc was found dead on January 25, 2006 at his mother's home.

An autopsy revealed that he had died of a cerebral haemorrhage caused by multiple punches in the face. But it also showed that he had fractured ribs, bruising to his back and other scars including cigarette burns covering the whole of his body that indicated previous beatings.

On trial are the boy's step father, David Da Costa, accused of murder by torturing and repeatedly beating the child, and his mother, Isabelle Gosselin, for complicity in a crime.

Alongside them in the dock are seven other people. They include Marc's grandparents, his aunt and uncle, a childminder who was the mother's best friend and two doctors, Christian Tirloy and Michel Vellemans. All stand accused of failing to assist a person in danger.

According to reports compiled by police after his death, Marc's life could have been saved several times in the weeks leading up to January 25.

But his mother always explained any evidence of bruising on his face to family and friends as being a result of the five-year-old's self-harming. Gosselin told them that her son hit his head against the wall and threw himself downstairs.

And that was a story she repeated to the two doctors, one of whom saw Marc at the end of December 2005 and the other in January, a week before his death.

Both doctors insist that their suspicions were never aroused and that they considered Gosselin to be a "good mother" and one beyond suspicion.

Alice Cohen Sabban, a lawyer for Vellemans, who examined Marc in January, told French television that the doctor had noticed several scratches, but had accepted Gosselin's explanation of how the boy had acquired them and recommended she take him for a psychiatric evaluation.

"He made a diagnosis based on what the mother told him and what he saw," she said.

"And he came to the conclusion that the boy wasn't being mistreated but that it was a behavioural problem - his behavior - that was the cause of his bruising and scratches."

For Alain Reisenthel, one of the prosecuting lawyers however, that explanation is unsatisfactory.

"If the doctor had seen the child and conducted a full examination, he would have stopped the mother from leaving the surgery and contacted the police," he said.

Furthermore Reisenthel believes that all of the seven people on trial for failing to assist a person in danger played a part in the death of the child.

"If just one of them had intervened, Marc would still be alive," he told journalists.

The trial is being seen as not just one about child abuse, but also about the apparent "indifference" of those who should have been in a position to prevent or stop it from happening.

It's set to run until November 7

Enfance et partage - TV spot

Enfance et partage - a French association to protect and defend children against abuse

Alleged serial rapist freed because of error in French justice

While miscarriages of justice have been making the headlines here recently in France (see the stories on Loïc Sécher and Marc Machin), the latest case of the country's legal system "getting it wrong" involves freeing a man awaiting trial on two counts of rape.

Last week, Jorge Montes, was freed from custody because of a simple administrative mistake, and the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has stepped in to speed up the process by which the original error can be rectified and Montes taken back into detention.

At the moment though, the 48-year-old, with a history of violence towards women and whom psychiatric experts, police and prosecutors all consider a danger to society, is "free" and the only obligation he has, is to report regularly to a police station in the Paris region.

The latest mess the French judicial system finds itself in occurred because of a simple (even the courts have admitted "stupid") slip of the pen.

On October 17 the clerk of a court in Paris signed a document that sought to reject a request to set Montes free, but rather than validating ("confirmer") that request, he invalidated ("infirmer") it - thus in effect allowing Montes to walk free until his case came up for trial.

To compound the mistake, the same document was countersigned by a judge who didn't pick up on the initial error, and last week to everyone's shock and even the surprise of Montes himself, he was allowed out of custody.

"It's a real scandal and a grave mistake," said Franck Berton, a lawyer for one of the alleged victims.

"I'm used to the judicial system sometimes not working properly, but this case is exceptional.

"It's an embarrassment. You cannot have two pages describing that this man is a dangerous criminal and then just one word which allows his liberty."

And that was very much the point of view of the French president who, although on a visit to China, issued a statement calling for the French justice system to rectify its mistake as soon as possible.

"I don't have the intention of allowing a serial rapist to remain free simply because there has been an administrative error," Sarkozy said.

With both Sarkozy and the justice minister, Rachida Dati, putting pressure on the system to correct its initial mistake, a hearing has been set for Friday October 31 for the original request to be authorised.

Montes is a man with a history of violence towards women. Both his former wives describe him as manipulative and violent and psychiatric evaluations categorise the 48-year-old as "narcissistic, a liar and a megalomaniac."

In May 2007 he was sentenced to two years imprisonment with one year suspended for violence and aggression to a former partner. He was freed in June this year and then taken into custody shortly afterwards for having violated the conditions of his parole.

The alleged rapes for which he is now awaiting trial predate that incarceration. One woman accuses him of holding her captive for 12 days in April 2006 and raping her repeatedly, and a second says he raped her in June of the same year

According to police reports, both women had been terrified and humiliated to such an extent that they had been afraid to press charges.

In perhaps what many would consider to be more than a surrealistic appearance in front of television cameras last week when he was allowed out of detention, even Montes seemed surprised.

"I feel astonished," he said. "It's incredible and unexpected."

His lawyer though, considers Montes' release to be totally acceptable and his client has every legal right to be walking free at the moment.

"It's official and has been signed by all the relevant people," Patrick Maisonneuve told French television. "About that there can be no discussion."

Although Montes is at liberty for the moment, he is required to report his whereabouts to police and has had his passport confiscated. On Friday, a Paris court will review the order allowing his release.

Sarkozy taking action - legal action

It has been a busy almost 18 months for the lawyers of the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and the past month has been especially hectic.

As the latest edition of the weekly news magazine "L'Express" points out, Sarkozy has resorted to French justice to pursue civil suits more than any other president in the history of the country's Fifth Republic.

It had been 30 years since an incumbent president had last brought a civil suit legal action, but in the space of less than 18 months, Sarkozy has well and truly bucked the trend in taking or threatening legal proceedings six times.

Some would argue that at least a couple of the suits have had a basis, such as the recent ones involving hacking into his private bank account - for which two people where taken in for questioning on Tuesday - or action he has taken against allegations made by a former head of French intelligence (more on that in a moment). But others - and remember there have been four more - have raised a few eyebrows.

Of those six, three have come in just the last month, and without passing judgement on the relative merits of each case, L'Express listed them all, pointing out that Sarkozy had now "accumulated a number of legal actions making him the "most plaintiff president of the Fifth Republic."

Here's a whistle stop tour of what Sarkozy's lawyers have been up to while he's been running the country, trying to fix the world's economy and, as France currently holds the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union, bashing Europe into shape by trying to persuade countries unwilling, that institutional reform in the shape of the Lisbon Treaty, is an absolute must.

The most recent case of course was just last week when he instructed his lawyers to take out a law suit against the former head of the French intelligence service, Yves Bertrand, following the publication of diaries which included "unsubstantiated allegations" about a number of politicians - among them Sarkozy.

But that wasn't the only threat of action last week. There was also the affair of the "Voodoo dolls."

They come as part of a kit; complete with 12 needles and an instruction manual that quite literally invites the user to "pinpoint" exactly which elements of Sarkozy's policies or character they dislike most. His friendship with a comedian of dubious taste? Apparent "respect" for actor and Scientologist Tom Cruise? The end of advertising on public television? If you don't like one or many of the "traits" written on the effigy of Sarkozy, you stick the needle in the appropriate place.

There's also a similar doll for the defeated candidate in last year's presidential election, Ségolène Royal.

Certainly not of the greatest taste, but offensive enough to Sarkozy and his advisors to have him instruct his lawyer, Thierry Herzog, to whip off a letter to the distributors to have the doll withdrawn or risk legal action for "misuse of the president's image".

And in May there was the "T-shirt incident", when the president's lawyers demanded a company withdraw T-shirts emblazoned with "Sarkozy" with the "o" in his name transformed into a target with the slogan beneath it "zero tolerance - 50 points." An affront to the office of the president? A slight against the man and his policies? The case is still ongoing.

In February Sarkozy - and his not yet third wife Carla - took low cost airline Ryanair to court for the unauthorised use of a photograph of the couple in an advertisement. They later won the case, Sarkozy receiving the symbolic sum of €1 and Bruni-Sarkozy being paid €60,000 in damages.

And of course few here in France will forget the furore surrounding the text message he reportedly sent to his former wife, Cécilia, shortly before marrying Bruni-Sarkozy.

"If you return, I'll cancel everything" - ran an sms apparently never sent and therefore never received, but which caused a brouhaha both at home and abroad when it was reported on the website of the weekly news magazine Nouvel Observateur.

Sarkozy immediately slapped a law suit on the magazine - which could have brought with it three years in prison and a €45,000 fine. But matters were "sorted" an apology apparently made (by the magazine) and Sarkozy's complaint withdrawn.

Of course Sarkozy isn't the only member of his family to have been "involved with the law" over the past 18 months,

His second son, Jean and his new wife, Jessica Sebaoun, have recently started proceedings against a number of magazines for "invasion of privacy" when they snapped shots of the couple shortly after their very private marriage.

And Jean's alleged involvement in a hit-and-run scooter incident from 2005 has only just been dropped - on the recommendation of the public prosecutor.

Sarkozy is often portrayed at both at home and abroad as the most "American" of French presidents, and for much of the first few months after coming to power in May 2007, he certainly seemed more than to embrace that image.

On recent evidence he seems to have taken it one step further with a pattern of behaviour that might perhaps be more widely characterised as being "typically American" namely suing or at least regularly launching the threat of legals proceedings.

Perhaps the conclusion is that if the past 18 months of Sarkozy's time in office are anything to go by, then the rest of his tenure could well be a busy one - at least for the family's lawyers.