A gendarme having committed an offense on a policing mission falls well under the military justice, decided Thursday the Constitutional Council which was seized by the family of Rémi Fraisse, killed in 2014 by a grenade drawn by a soldier. Jean-Pierre Fraisse, the father of the environmental activist who died at 21 in Sivens, had obtained on October 16th from the Court of Cassation that she transmit to the Sages a priority question of constitutionality (QPC) on the competence of examining magistrates ruling in military matters.
Jean-Pierre Fraisse requested the repeal of the provisions of Article 697-1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which establish in his opinion "an unjustified difference of treatment" between the litigants, depending on whether the perpetrator of the offense committed in the Law enforcement is a policeman or police officer.
"Subject to special rules in their policing activity". In the event of an offense committed in this context, a police officer will be tried by an ordinary court, unlike a gendarme who comes under a specialized military jurisdiction. The lawyers of Jean-Pierre Fraisse, Patrice Spinosi and Arié Alimi, denounced at the hearing on January 8 a justice "exception" for the gendarmes, yet placed in mission of maintenance of the order "under a same civil authority ", that of the Ministry of the Interior or the prefect.
The Sages declared the contested provisions "in accordance with the Constitution". If they establish a difference in treatment between a police officer and a gendarme, they are justified in view of the military status of gendarmes and their particular criminal regime. "The military of the gendarmerie remain subject to these special rules in their policing activity, and therefore they are not placed in the same situation for the offenses committed in this context as the members of the national police force. ", said the Sages.
The shooting gendarme was dismissed. Rémi Fraisse had succumbed to the explosion of a grenade fired by a gendarme during violent clashes on the construction site of the controversial water reservoir of Sivens, on October 26, 2014. The offensive grenades at the origin of his death had been subsequently prohibited. The shooting gendarme, who had not been indicted, had received a nonsuit in January 2018. Jean-Pierre Fraisse appealed but this procedure was suspended pending the QPC's decision.