While several arrests took place in mid-December in the case of the transphobic cyberharassment of Brigitte Macron, Juan Branco, the lawyer of one of the defendants, recently spoke out on social networks. On January 11, the person who defends the interests of a certain Aurélien Poirson-Atlan, known under the pseudonym “Zoé Sagan”, familiar with conspiracy circles, indicated: “Brigitte Macron alleges having had ITTs in the Zoé Sagan affair. If I were teasing, I would ask myself what “work” Ms. Macron claims to have, who finances it, and when she interrupted it. Actually, that’s not the point. The princes and princesses of our Republic must stop misusing systems meant to protect the most vulnerable in order to arrest and persecute ordinary citizens.” Published on both X and Facebook, this post has since been removed from Elon Musk’s network. But still remains, at this time, online on Facebook.
Requested by CheckNews, Jean Ennochi, Brigitte Macron’s lawyer, denies this assertion. Stating: “Madame Macron has never mentioned any ITT. The offense of harassment is constituted in the absence of ITT, which is an aggravating circumstance.” For his part, Juan Branco did not respond to the request of CheckNews in order to know the origin of this information as well as the reason for deleting his tweet.
Unit of measurement of injury severity level
In any case, the substance of Juan Branco’s remarks is not legally correct. Because jurisprudence in criminal law dictates that an ITT, for “total incapacity for work”, is not a concept limited to the professional sphere, contrary to what its name suggests. It therefore in no way implies exercising a profession. As the Ministry of the Interior points out, the ITT is a “unit of measurement used in criminal law to describe the level of seriousness of the injuries suffered by a victim. This is the period during which the individual is not fully able to engage in the usual acts of everyday life, for physical or psychological reasons, whether in the exercise of a profession or in outside of it”. Total incapacity for work can be established by a treating doctor or an emergency service after filing a complaint or at the request of the investigating judge.
The High Authority for Health (HAS) describes an ITT as a “functional discomfort in daily activities” and preaches for “legislative development” Who “would allow for clarification” of this notion “unsuitable and a source of confusion, being neither necessarily total nor linked to work in the sense of professional activity”. For example, ITT can be granted to children if they are victims of voluntary or involuntary violence.
ITT in criminal law should not be confused with “temporary total incapacity”, which is governed by civil law. This notion, now called “temporary functional deficit” (DFT), makes it possible to assess the compensation of a victim who cannot resume their usual activities due to bodily injury, whether the latter occurred at their workplace or not.
