Steve’s mother Maïa Caniço is absent this Friday morning from the benches of the civil party. The defense’s argument was too hard for him to hear. Me Cailliez, defender of Grégoire Chassaing, did not use the term “inadvertent fall” from Steve Maïa Caniço, which he had used at the start of the trial, but he, as he had announced, again pleaded for release.
“No certain causal link”
“Misnaming things is adding misfortune to the world and misnaming what happened on June 22, 2019 is adding injustice to misfortune! “, he began, quoting Albert Camus. For Me Louis Cailliez, there is no certain causal link between his client’s action and the death of the 24-year-old from Nantes. In this case, the offense of manslaughter is, in his eyes, the most terrible there is, “because it brings together pains that had no reason to meet. Two families find themselves at a hearing based on circumstances. But can these circumstances be linked to a fault? »
“He could have fallen on his own”
For the lawyer, it is prudence which must guide the court’s assessment. The causal link must be “undeniable.” If it is diffuse, deduced, it is relaxation,” he believes. And, in his eyes, “everything suggests that Steve Maïa Caniço fell unrelated to the police action”. He describes the young man sleeping, one meter from the quay, facing rue de Guyane, on the island of Nantes. “He could have fallen on his own,” when he woke up, disoriented. The place where he dozes – for Me Cailliez, he did not move towards the bunker area – is “not affected by the tear gas cloud of 4:31 a.m.”, he assures. Nor does he see, referring to the videos, any crowd movement at this location. The causal link is therefore, according to him, not supported.
Pomegranates? “A reaction of self-defense”
As for the blatant faults attributed to Grégoire Chassaing, he brushes them aside. He would have given in to the provocation of two DJs and asked his staff to put their heads down to return there? “There is nothing wrong with this statement. He retreats behind the rocks. Going back is the most neutral term in the world! », asserts Me Cailliez. His client’s ego problem? ” It hurts. Forty certificates speak of his calm, his level-headedness.” He would have allowed his troops to use tear gas grenades, without prior order, without warning? “It’s on initiative, in a reaction of self-defense, in a phase that astounds everyone. He cannot prevent the individual reaction of his men! »
“An unfortunate accident”
As for the third fault, that of having opted for an increase in the numbers under his command, “it is a questionable decision. It meets the objective of reconquering the bunker. He makes this decision very quickly. It does not constitute a serious fault.” Me Caillez undermines the portrait of a police officer stuck in a rigid relationship with order and believes “that he did the best he could. It’s the reaction of someone who is attacked that you have to appreciate.” The tunnel effect is, according to him, not an illusion: “Violence affects capacity, however seasoned it may be. Who killed Steve Maïa Caniço? An unfortunate accident, unrelated to the police and Édouard Chassaing.”
“A monumental pressure”
And to estimate that if “the trial was inevitable given the pressure”, his client “has already taken his sentence”. He is also surprised by the sentence in principle required on Thursday by the public prosecutor. “My feeling is that we are disguising a civil wrong because there is monumental pressure.” Exhorting the judges not to give in to “an opinion that pulls on your sleeve”, he asks for acquittal, which “will not be an admission of failure, of weakness but the humble reflection of what we know and do not do not know “. Grégoire Chassaing, invited to speak one last time, has nothing to add. Deliberated on September 20, at 2 p.m.
