Fight against domestic violence, firmness in the face of terrorism, reforms of the prosecution and juvenile justice: these are the priorities drawn up by the Keeper of the Seals, Eric Dupond-Moretti, who defends justice close to citizens in an interview with Sunday newspaper published July 19.
In 600 days, he won’t be able to do everything, so he will go “By instinct”, with ” ideas “ and the conscience of a man who “Owes everything to the Republic” : “As a lawyer, I have always defended men, not cases. This time again, I went there for the man ”, he said to explain why at 59 he swapped the lawyer robe for the minister’s tie.
His arrival at Place Vendôme aroused as much surprise as concern and even distrust within the judiciary and among feminist associations, scalded by his critics of the #metoo movement. From the start, he demines: “I want the men suspected of domestic violence, if they are not referred, to be summoned by the prosecutor and receive a solemn judicial warning. “
“I have already been told that it could offend the presumption of innocence: I showed my teeth… This is not a conviction; it is the way to show a man that justice is attentive and that it does not let anything pass. I already hear that some caricaturize me as a lax who wants to empty the prisons, others as an ultra-repressive who wants to fill them. I will be neither. “
Favorable to impose the wearing of an electronic bracelet
The former bar ogre knows the immense “Need means” from the courts and claims to have obtained assurances for the 2021 budget which “Will increase the pace of job creation for justice”.
On terrorism, while the Senate will soon examine a controversial text providing for “Security measures” for those sentenced at the end of their sentence, he confessed that his “Thinking has evolved”.
“I have always been opposed to security detention as envisaged by President Sarkozy, because it sent people to prison not for what they had done but for what they would be likely to do in the country. ‘to come up “he says.
But he says to himself “Totally favorable” the imposition of the wearing of the electronic bracelet “For people who have been convicted of acts of terrorism”, people who ” anyway “ would “Monitored by our intelligence services”.
If he still supports the repatriation of women and children detained in Syria, he hides behind his loyalty to a government that “Defends the idea that these prisoners must be tried where they committed their acts and which examines on a case by case basis the situation of minors for their repatriation”.
Refusal to intervene in specific cases
The reforms which he holds dear to his heart and which he undertakes to carry out remain those of the prosecution – he wants to see the prosecutors appointed, like the judges, on “Assent” of the Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM): “I want to engrave this rule in the marble of the Constitution” – and juvenile justice he wants “Faster and more efficient”.
Without promising a revolution, he recalls that “Justice is at the service of the litigant, not the reverse” and suggests that sometimes the judge moves “Rather than justiciable”.
“Human rights” assumed, he also intends to improve the daily lives of detainees “Who have to go out [de prison] less bad than they entered » and proposes to generalize the existence of “Delegates who, among the prisoners, point out the difficulties, the shortcomings”.
As minister, he will not “Any intervention” in particular cases but defends the principle of feedback. He also committed to “Make public” the conclusions of the General Inspectorate of Justice, seized concerning an investigation linked to the former president of the Republic, Nicolas Sarkozy, having targeted lawyers and magistrates – in which the fadettes of several lawyers, including those of Eric Dupond- Moretti, were scrutinized.
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