VIDEOS. “We release the murderer and we will not have a trial ?”: at the Hérault assizes, a dying accused not fit to be judged

It's a legal fiasco. Jean-Luc Muller was to be tried at the Hérault assizes for a murder for which he has been incarcerated since August 2020. Seriously ill for many months, his trial could not be held before, at cause of the congestion of the jurisdiction. But the accused is no longer able to appear, the trial is postponed without anyone knowing if it will ever be able to be held. To the great dismay of the civil parties.

"I had prepared myself, on the stand, I'would have said that'he'# 39;there is no greater pain than the loss of a child for a mother, it is an irreparable unnatural act… And it would have relieved me to say it ! There, we have known the murderer since the first day and we free him ? And we will not have a trial ? Where is France going ? Where is justice going ?".

A neck brace around her neck, her voice trembling, supported by her son, her brother and her sister, Marie-Christine, a 76-year-old Gardoise, did not lose her temper this Monday, March 4 leaving the Assize Court of Hérault.

Killed with a dozen stab wounds

The case of the murder of his son, Fabrice Venaruzzo, killed with a dozen stab wounds in Montpellier, at the beginning of August 2020, during a bloody and alcoholic closed session, which was to be tried for three days was dismissed sine die. The reason ? The state of health of the accused, Jean-Luc Muller, 57 years old, does not allow him to be present for the holding of his trial" writes the doctor who examined him.

This postponement constitutes a resounding and almost definitive fiasco for justice in a case where the lack of resources of the institution did not allow it to be carried out judge in time the accused, suffering from "level 4 metastasized prostate cancer" as his lawyer recalls Me Marc Gallix, whose vital prognosis has been compromised for several months in his cell in Villeneuve-lès-Maguelone (Hérault).

Added to this referral is also an immediate release of Fabrice Venaruzzo pronounced by the assizes, which the court of appeal had refused five times over the past two years.

With, extremely rare, these apologies presented by President Sylvie Rouanne to the civil parties who were collapsed at the announcement of the postponement.

"The judicial institution apologizes to you"

"I understand that this is a complicated decision and difficult to hear… The judicial institution apologizes to you"< /em> said the magistrate. "This case should have been heard in 2023, the state of staffing did not allow it. We can hear your feeling of incomprehension, but we no longer meet the conditions to keep him in detention.