For Marseille and the south of France, the decision is difficult to understand. Éric Arella, the chief of the judicial police (PJ) in southern France, was fired on Friday 7 October. A decision that comes the day after a demonstration in Marseille against the reform of the PJ. “It’s a shame, we blame him. He has always been fair. And it is almost all the officials who are against this reform “, the government wanted, a source of the PJ in Marseille told the Agence France-Presse (AFP). It is a shock”, confided also a picture of an office center of the traffic police judiciary.
For seven years Éric Arella had been conducting investigations into serious crime and in particular into narcobanditismo from Perpignan to Nice, passing through Marseille, one of the cities most affected by this scourge.
“He is accused of yesterday’s official coup,” commented another local police source, referring to a “highly respected” man. Dozens of policemen spontaneously gathered at the foot of the police station on Friday, an AFP reporter noted.
The French Association of Investigating Magistrates (Afmi) for its part judged this eviction “worrying” in a press release. It reflects, according to the association, an “authoritarian management mode”. In a separate press release, the investigating judges in Marseille indicated that they learned “with amazement” of the expulsion of Éric Arella and expressed their “deep concern” about the reform project of the PJ, contested by the majority of this investigative body.
Matthieu Valet, spokesman for the independent union of police commissioners, acknowledges that “Éric Arella is a great police chief. Great technician of the judicial police, unanimously recognized by his peers, his dismissal will leave a void inside the Bishopric, the mythical seat of the PJ of Marseille “, he assured our colleagues from France 3.
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It was with a simple phone call that Éric Arella learned of his landing at noon, promptly soliciting calls to demonstrate across France from police officers and magistrates who had been worried for weeks about the reform in preparation. This eviction was confirmed to the Agence France-Presse by the Directorate General of the National Police (DGPN). “As with any reform, there are discussions, there can be disagreements. But such disloyalty is not acceptable, “say those around the DGPN. The Director General of the National Police (DGPN), Frédéric Veaux, obviously did not appreciate Thursday’s welcome in Marseille by some 200 agents mobilized against this reform.
A demonstration against the reform project of the PJ
On Thursday, around 200 PJ officers demonstrated in front of the Bishop’s Palace, the Marseille police station, on the occasion of the arrival of the Director General of the National Police (DGPN), Frédéric Veaux. When he left the meeting, Frédéric Veaux walked through the corridors in a freezing atmosphere, forced to break through a hedge of protesters, arms crossed and in silence, according to a video sent to AFP on Thursday.
The reform of the PJ arouses enormous reluctance within the institution, but also on the side of justice. Led by the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin and Frédéric Veaux, the project plans to place all the police services of a department – intelligence, public security, border police (PAF) and judicial police (PJ) – under the authority of a sole director of the national police department (DDPN), reporting to the prefect.
“We know that there will be great damage to the organized crime investigation due to the restructuring. We fight to defend our core business. It is truly a vocation, a personal investment “, said AFP Thierry, brigadier in chief of the Anti-Narcotics Office (Ofast) who demonstrated against the expulsion of Éric Arella on Friday in Marseille.
Hundreds of officers gathered
Immediately after the announcement, hundreds of officers gathered in Marseille, Toulon or should have gathered in Nice and Montpellier and throughout France. In Marseille there were about 200 people shouting “good”, “thank you boss”. They were joined by prosecutors and investigating judges from the specialized interregional jurisdiction that deals with cases of serious crimes.
“The results in Marseille are bad with record levels of homicides while the workforce has significantly increased”, was also commented in the entourage of the Dgpn to explain the ousting of what many magistrates and police call him “big policeman”.
Since the beginning of the year, 25 people have been shot dead in drug-related murders in the Bouches-du-Rhône, according to the police headquarters. As for the whole of 2021. In Marseille, at the end of June, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, congratulated “that 60% of these settlements are resolved here, that is to say that it is a positive figure since, in France, we solve about 30% of the attempted murders ”.
Éric Arella, who will leave for the National Police Inspectorate General (IGPN) on Monday, is replaced by Dominique Abbenanti, currently security officer in Algiers, who has joined the National Police Directorate General (DGPN).
