Mathias Vicherat, former director of Sciences Po, and Anissa Bonnefont, his ex-partner, sentenced to suspended prison terms for domestic violence

The former director of Sciences Po Paris Mathias Vicherat was sentenced to five months in prison for violence against his ex-partner, the director Anissa Bonnefont, who was sentenced to eight months in prison for violence against him, Friday November 29.

Mathias Vicherat's defense has communicated that it will appeal, “because he is not half innocent, he is completely innocent”. Anissa Bonnefont's council did not wish to react immediately, according to Agence France-Presse. The two defendants appeared on October 24 for violence of which they accused each other and the prosecutor had requested a six-month suspended prison sentence.

After their placement in police custody at the beginning of December 2023, they did not file a complaint but an investigation was opened by the prosecution. Students then occupied Sciences Po to demand the resignation of Mr. Vicherat and he temporarily withdrew. He resigned in March, the moment he learned of his summons to trial.

“Particularly dysfunctional relationship”

The court found him guilty of violence without total incapacity for work (ITT) by a spouse, for strangling his partner in July 2023, but he was acquitted of charges for violence with ITT of more than eight days, which corresponded to a fracture wrist while trying to grab the phone she was holding on September 30, 2023.

“It has been proven that [ces] injuries were caused during a very serious argument between a couple” during which M^me Bonnefont “admitted to having been violent”declared the president while making the decision. In this case, the court found that the elements were “insufficient to characterize” the offense and “the causal link, injuries can result from several distinct behaviors”. He also authorized a non-registration in Mr. Vicherat's criminal record.

The defendant was found guilty of violence with ITT for more than eight days, during the year 2023, for having given him “slaps”as well as for violence with ITT less than eight days for having given him “slaps and punches” on December 3.

In both cases, the court mentioned having taken into consideration “the context of a particularly dysfunctional relationship for many months”adding, for Mr. Vicherat, that he had “regularly suffered violence from [sa] companion ». A ban on mutual contact for three years was imposed with provisional execution.