Has organized crime crossed a new limit? The question arises after the arrest, on October 30, of four men suspected of having planned to attack the attorney general of Douai. As the newspaper revealed on Tuesday The Worldthe northern police officers were warned in the evening of the presence of suspicious vehicles near the home of Frédéric Fèvre and went to the scene. It turns out that three of the four people arrested are already well known to their services, particularly for cases of armed robbery and possession of narcotics. During a search, ammunition was found, but no weapon.
The case takes on particular sensitivity due to the fact that the person targeted is a senior magistrate. It was taken very seriously by Junalco (National Jurisdiction for the Fight against Organized Crime), which took charge of the investigation. A judicial investigation was opened on November 2. The four men were indicted by an investigating judge on charges of “conspiracy to commit a crime and acquisition” and “possession of weapons”, namely “category B ammunition”. , indicates to 20 Minutes the Paris prosecutor's office. The investigations were entrusted to the Northern judicial police and Oclco (Central Office for the Fight against Organized Crime).
A “team of nickel-plated feet”
According to our information, the first elements of the investigation reveal, however, that the suspects, “low-level” delinquents, “are not linked to organized crime”. A well-informed police source tells 20 Minutes that it is a “team of nickel-plated feet who wanted to carry out a burglary or a home-jacking, perhaps with kidnapping”. “A priori, there is no connection with the activities of the Attorney General. Above all, they expected to find values, goods, that's what they were aiming for. But it does not seem directly linked to his functions,” continues this source. Which nevertheless does not rule out the possibility that “one day or another”, drug traffickers will attack magistrates who hinder them in their criminal activities.
Without waiting for the result of the investigation, the president of the National Conference of Attorneys General, Eric Corbeaux, denounced on Wednesday in a press release facts of “extreme seriousness for the judicial institution, those who embody it, and for the whole of society.” “Such action could have no other purpose than to put pressure on our criminal justice system, to weaken and constrain it and allow force and violence to take precedence over the law,” wrote the magistrate , who serves as attorney general in Poitiers. He asked the authorities “to take stock of the safety of all magistrates who are particularly exposed in the exercise of their functions in the fight against crime”.
The “fragile responses” of the institution
“It is difficult at this stage to assess whether there is a real increase in the threat generated by organized crime against magistrates directly,” explains to 20 Minutes Judith Allenbach, permanent secretary of the Magistrates' Union (SM) and investigating judge in Paris. “On the other hand, there are obvious issues concerning the security of magistrates specializing in the fight against organized crime, which must be taken very seriously. When there are requests for protection made following threats identified during investigations, the responses provided by the institution are generally quite fragile, or even non-existent. They deserve to be improved,” insists the magistrate. Several of his colleagues had “difficulty obtaining credible and serious protection” even though they had been “threatened over wiretapping”.
For the president of the Union Syndicale des Magistrats (USM), Ludovic Friat, it is necessary to “reflect on the state of the threat”. “Clearly, we will not be able to put a bodyguard behind the 9,500 magistrates in office. But some are more exposed than others, such as anti-terrorism prosecutors or investigating judges, those who work on organized crime in Marseille. »
The magistrate also points out the lack of “protection and security of the jurisdictions”, that is to say the courts. “Currently, there are no more police officers in most jurisdictions, because the Ministry of the Interior considered that it was an undue burden,” he regrets to 20 Minutes. These are therefore private companies “which ensure the security of our fellow citizens, magistrates and judicial personnel, but with their means”. “If tomorrow, someone arrives with a Kalash in the hall of a court, they will not be able to arrest them,” he whispers.
“She was clearly in danger”
However, there is no shortage of examples of magistrates being threatened. Ludovic Friat mentions in particular the case of an investigating judge from Vaucluse who, in 2022, “had been threatened by the local environment”. “The police and judicial response was relatively weak,” laments the president of the USM.
The suspect was in fact acquitted last June by the Avignon criminal court, as reported Provence. The civil party appealed the decision. “The colleague had to go far away, change functions and living environment because she was clearly in danger. »
