Robin Cotta’s mother accuses the State and the prison administration of being at the origin of the death of her son, killed in October in the Marseille prison by a fellow inmate in the arrivals section.
Odile Cotta still remembers last October 4 perfectly. A private number calls him on his cell phone. It’s eleven o’clock in the evening. She is surprised by the time of this phone call. On the other end of the receiver, a voice announces: “Mr. Cotta Robin did not survive some of the violence.” On September 22, 2024, Odile Cotta’s son, Robin, was placed in pre-trial detention in Marseille’s Baumettes prison. At the age of 22, he discovered detention after being arrested in possession of false prescriptions to obtain codeine syrup, used in a roundabout way for its euphoric effects.
A few weeks later, Robin Cotta was killed in custody by a fellow inmate. “Theoretically, however, in France, there should be only one detainee per cell in the arrivals section”notes Odile Cotta’s lawyer, Me Étienne Noël. However, according to the latter, Robin Cotta found himself in a cell with two other detainees, including the accused, “sentenced to an immediate appearance sentence of six months, with semi-release granted by the administration”.
“He was scared”
“I never would have believed that this would have happened”confides Odile Cotta, still in shock. For her as for her lawyer, the responsibility of the State in the death of Robin Cotta is beyond doubt. “There have been so many failings in this prison that one almost wonders if it was not done on purpose”she gets carried away. “I’m angry. I’m tired. I want the prison to pay. They are the ones who allowed this big sick person to have time to smash my son”.
According to Odile Cotta, the accused was an inmate whose outbursts of violence were known to the prison administration. Above all, according to her, her son Robin had asked several times to change prison, as revealed by France Info. “Robin had passed words to the guards under the door, without anything happening, reminds Me Étienne Noël. You could say he was scared.”
A month ago, Odile Cotta received the first conclusions of an investigation report into the death of her son. “He had a horrible death and I still have nightmares about it, she whispers. Are they all deaf and blind in this prison, or what? My son screamed. The fellow prisoners too. An hour later, his throat was slit. I just want to honor the memory of my son who died in total disrespect.”
Psychologically marked agents
“My son was 22 years old, she recalls. He was barely out of his teens. He had his life ahead of him. I don’t understand. In prison, there are supervisors, guards. It’s not even an assassination anymore. It’s a death sentence. My son was given away like fodder.” Contacted, Me Étienne Noël confirms that he is considering an appeal and referral to the administrative court of Marseille to have the State’s responsibility recognized in the death of Robin Cotta.
For its part, the prison administration indicates to the Figaro that“a legal procedure being in progress, and in application of article 11 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Ministry of Justice cannot make any comment.” “An internal administrative investigation is being carried out in parallel with the judicial investigation, continues this same source. Furthermore, the staff at the Baumettes penitentiary center, very affected by this affair, have all received an offer of psychological support. A few of them took up this proposition.”
