“Making sure it can't happen again”: towards an evolution of the “legal arsenal” after the murder of Philippine ?

Une foule imposante lors des obsèques de Philippine, à Versailles. MAXPPP – Olivier CORSAN

The funeral of the 19-year-old student took place on Friday. Justice Minister Didier Migaud acknowledged “a feeling of failure”.

“We all feel concerned.” More than 2,800 people attended Philippine's funeral on Friday at the Saint-Louis Cathedral in Versailles.

“I thought it was important to come here to pay my respects and pay my respects,” a 15-year-old girl explained on site, quoted by Sud Ouest and AFP. “It was important to come and support the whole family, we have children from her age” abounded his mother.

~6 0~em>”Obviously, justice will do its job […] We must protect the French better every day, do it, do it and say less", added the head of state. The new Minister of Justice, Didier Migaud, acknowledged, Friday, on France Inter, "a feeling of failure".

"The Minister of Justice cannot intervene in the context of an individual procedure. This does not prevent me from feeling as strongly as the citizens the emotion in the face of such a situation”, he explained, specifying that one of his daughters was "the same age" as the victim.

"My responsibility is to ensure that this cannot happen again", he commented, but "we cannot legislate on an emergency, based on a case individual".

The profile of the suspect arrested, a 22-year-old Moroccan released after a conviction for rape while he was subject to an Obligation to Leave French Territory (OQTF), has rekindled the debate on deportations in France.

Tensions with Retailleau

The right and the far right believe that the suspect should not have been released before obtaining the document allowing his deportation to Morocco. “We need to look at whether there were any shortcomings, Didier Migaud commented on Friday. Are the texts necessary ? The person cannot remain in detention indefinitely, there is a rule of law with a certain number of rules that are imposed. Based on an objective observation, yes, it may be possible to develop the legal arsenal."

"The execution of sentences has progressed a lot, like the number of people currently detained in prison, but I know that this is inaudible to the citizen", he stressed. Didier Migaud promised to “see if the legislation is suitable” to propose "possibly" modifications "with my colleague from the Interior Ministry", Bruno Retailleau.

After an initial media spat between these two ministers, the first from the left, the second from the right, Michel Barnier brought them together on Thursday to "find common ground" before possible announcements on Justice on Tuesday during his general policy speech.

A bill from the right

The minister did not say he was in favor, however, of the systematization of double punishment, i.e. the return of the convicted person to their country of origin at the end of their prison stay, advocated by the president of the RN, Jordan Bardella.

LR deputies will submit, for their part, a bill to extend the detention period of dangerous illegal aliens.

Rapes: consent soon to be enshrined in law ?

The Minister of Justice, Didier Migaud, spoke on France Inter on Friday about his desire to change the definition of rape in French law. When asked whether he was in favor, like Emmanuel Macron, of the inclusion of consent in French law, Mr. Migaud replied: “Yes.” The debate on the redefinition of rape in the Penal Code resurfaced in France during the Mazan trial in Avignon, where around fifty men are being tried for the rape of Gisèle Pelicot, who was drugged without her knowledge by her husband.