The expectation was particularly strong. Requested for decades by certain lawyers and families of victims, a center entirely devoted to serial crimes and unsolved cases will be set up from March 1 in Nanterre. In an interview given to 20 Minutes, the Minister of Justice, Eric Dupond-Moretti details the missions and scope of action entrusted to this new judicial entity.
Created by the law “strengthening confidence in the judicial institution”, this national center will initially be composed of three investigating judges, an assistant prosecutor, three clerks and two assistant lawyers. According to the Minister, at least 241 current files could be entrusted to this new pole.
Saturday January 8, a march in tribute to Estelle Mouzin, who died nineteen years ago, took place in Guermantes. His father, Eric Mouzin, recently wrote to you to demand the creation of a national pole devoted to “cold cases”. When will this device be released?
This pole dedicated to serial and unsolved crimes is precisely provided for by the law strengthening confidence in the judicial institution that I brought before parliamentarians and which was promulgated on December 22 last. We wanted to go quickly, so it will be launched on March 1st and an implementing decree will be published this week.
Why do these cases require, in your opinion, the creation of such a tool?
In the investigative chambers, the judges work for a limited time and are then replaced by colleagues. We thus see in the very long files, the complex files, three or four magistrates who follow one another.
And the older the files, the less they correspond to a form of legal news. This is not a reproach but an observation: when a new judge arrives in a cabinet, he has emergencies to manage.
The passage of time is the worst enemy of the elucidation of a case, because sometimes the witnesses go to live elsewhere, because the memory fades, for a thousand reasons. From my experience as a lawyer, I have seen that the resolution of this type of crime was possible thanks to the persistence of an investigator or a magistrate and above all also thanks to the coordination between different services, in particular in the cases where the perpetrator committed crimes in different places. Without this work of connection between one crime and another, without analysis of the modus operandi of the author, we cannot manage to solve complex cases. However, for the victims, for the families, these old files, they are still acute suffering and as time passes, they may have the feeling, deep down, that we will no longer succeed. This pole must allow these files to remain alive judicially and to offer a response to the victims.
Where will it be located?
It seemed to me necessary to create a single, national pole, in order to concentrate efforts, centralize them and coordinate them. The establishment of this center in Paris was not the best solution because the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) and the National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office (Pnat) are already attached to this jurisdiction, it will therefore be located in the Versailles Court of Appeal. in Nanterre.
What business will be able to return to this new team?
Cases that have not been elucidated after 18 months of fruitless investigations may be forwarded to the division. But that does not mean that all cases that have lasted 18 months without anyone being able to find a trace of the author will be relinquished in favor of this pole. Cases are sometimes resolved two years after the fact because until now there was a lack of technical elements or interrogations to be carried out and, unlike the Pnats for terrorism cases, this center will not have exclusive jurisdiction.
Today in France, there are 173 unsolved crimes for which justice is seized and 68 proceedings for serial crimes. This represents a total of 241 files and some are very old. I specify that the victims will be able to seize this pole but not directly. They will be able to ask the public prosecutor’s office that their case – or their cases if there are several families involved – be examined by this unit.
How many people will be required to integrate this device?
Three investigating judges will integrate this pole, a first vice-president and two vice-presidents. The first vice-president will be a forerunner, that is to say, he will be in charge of setting up this pole. At the prosecution, there will be a magistrate and they will be accompanied by three clerks and two assistant lawyers. Then, a dialogue will be initiated with the direction of the judicial services and adjustments will be possible according to the rise in power of the pole. All of them will be 100% detached on these files. A call for applications will be launched in the coming days and I will then send proposals to the Superior Council of the Judiciary (CSM).
Which investigation services will these investigations be entrusted to?
The investigating magistrates will have complete freedom to continue with the initial investigators or to seize a service specialized in unsolved crimes, like the Diane division at Pontoise. A joint referral with the initial investigators and the specialized services is also quite possible.
The question of the preservation of seals has sometimes been central in the resolution of certain cases. Will the creation of this center be accompanied by a specific mechanism on this subject?
It is true that poor conservation of seals is one of the causes of loss of evidence. It goes without saying that if the center sheds new light on these cases, very particular attention will be paid both to the conservation of these pieces but also to their use and exploitation.
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