On April 17, the investigating judges ordered the referral of four people to the Marseille criminal court: Julien Ruas, former deputy of ex-mayor LR Jean-Claude Gaudin in charge of policing endangered buildings; Richard Carta, expert architect appointed by the administrative court in serious and imminent danger proceedings; and two legal entities, the mixed economy company Marseille Habitat, owner of the unoccupied building at 63 rue d’Aubagne, and the Liautard trustee firm, manager of 65.
The two buildings collapsed at the same time, causing the death of eight residents of 65.
But these four defendants, prosecuted for involuntary homicide and involuntary injury, will not be the only ones at the trial, from November 7 to December 18.
On Friday, the Marseille criminal court recorded the direct summons issued to the owners of four of the ten housing units at 65, i.e. seven individuals and two companies, who will have to answer for aggravated manslaughter and endangerment and submission of people vulnerable to accommodation conditions incompatible with human dignity.
Among these owners brought before the court by this rather unprecedented initiative of the civil parties: Xavier Cachard, former LR vice-president of the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur regional council, who owned an apartment in the building and was the lawyer from the Liautard firm.
“It was totally unsatisfactory not to have the owners in such a trial,” according to Me Philippe Vouland, defender of the children of the mother killed in the collapse when she had just returned from the school where she had accompanied his youngest son.
Three other direct quotes target the representatives of the two legal entities already dismissed: Christian Gil, former general director of Marseille Habitat, his delegate Christian Coulange and Jean-François Valentin, manager of 65 for the trustee Liautard.
At the end of the hearing on Friday, the other surprise came from the request from the city of Marseille to become a civil party to the trial, “if only to answer questions that might arise”, indicated one of his lawyers, Me Grégoire Ladouari. The debate on the admissibility of this civil party application rejected during the investigation was postponed until September 20 during a new hearing to prepare the case.
Indicator of the emotional charge that the hearings will have, the president of the court Pascal Gand asked the civil parties’ lawyers on Friday for photos of the eight victims, “so that they are not just a number in the proceedings”.
