Paris prosecutor Rmy Heitz announced AFP the opening on Monday of a large preliminary investigation into the critical management of the Covid-19 crisis in France, targeting in particular the heads of “involuntary homicides” or “endangerment of the lives of others. “
This investigation, the legal response to most of the complaints received by the Paris public prosecutor’s office during confinement, “is not there to define political or administrative responsibilities”, explained Mr. Heitz, “but to uncover possible criminal offenses “of national decision makers.
This does not concern the head of state, who is criminally irresponsible, or members of the government whose responsibility lies with the Court of Justice of the Republic, which has received 80 complaints.
This “hat survey” combines on the one hand 13 procedures devoted to complaints from associations and trade union organizations and, on the other, a fourteenth, encompassing 33 complaints, the vast majority of individuals, arising from standard complaints from the website plaintecovid.fr.
These investigations, entrusted to the Central Office for Combating Environmental Damage and Public Health (Oclaesp), relate to the main grievances raised since the beginning of the epidemic: protection at work, provision of masks and tests, etc.
The investigation is opened for “involuntary homicides”, “involuntary injuries”, “endangering the life of others”, “voluntary abstention from fighting a disaster”, “non-assistance person in danger”.
“If there are criminal faults, they are very likely – it is a hypothesis – unintentional faults. However, the law lays down precise conditions for establishing these offenses: it requires proof of a qualified fault which does not is not a simple carelessness or negligence, “detailed the prosecutor.
Combining these investigations will thus allow, according to the prosecutor, to establish a common documentary fund on the state of scientific knowledge. Because “for this type of offense, the penal code says that it is necessary to assess the responsibilities” of the decision-makers “in the light of the means and knowledge which they had at the time of the decisions,” underlines Mr. Heitz.
This national survey does not concern nursing homes, establishments for the elderly and dependent, which are the subject of local surveys today, including two in Paris, but also Nanterre (Paris region) or Grasse (South-East).
AFP
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