[Executive and former editor in chief of the Paris newspaper Libération Vittorio de] Filippis, in a detailed account published Saturday by Libération, said [investigating magistrate Muriel] Josié questioned him about a lawsuit brought against the newspaper last year. The suit concerned an opinion article contributed by an Internet commentator and published by Liberation's Web site that described past legal troubles of Xavier Niel, founder of a French Internet access company called Free. <...> "I told the cops that there was perhaps another way to conduct themselves. The response in front of my son: 'You, you are worse than scum.' "After a stop at the suburban Raincy police station, near his home, Filippis said, he was handcuffed with his arms behind his back and driven to the main Paris courthouse beside the Seine River in the center of the city. After taking all his personal effects, police ordered him to strip and bend over for a body search, he said, before locking him in a cell."The room had a table, a roll of toilet paper, a concrete sleeping platform with two blankets," Filippis said. "I saw a toilet in a corner. I sat on the table to avoid the cockroaches and moths."About 10 a.m., two officers escorted him down a long corridor and ordered him to undress for another search. When he protested, Filippis said, he was told that the investigating magistrate had insisted on following procedure, and so he submitted a second time before being taken into Josié's office.Josié said she had summoned him numerous times without success, he said, and asked him to identify his attorneys from a list of names. She refused his request to call the lawyers, he added, and so, in a testy exchange, he declined to respond further to her questions. After formally notifying him that he was being investigated in the libel case, she ordered him released, he said, and he found himself on the sidewalk in front of the courthouse.
[Executive and former editor in chief of the Paris newspaper Libération Vittorio de] Filippis, in a detailed account published Saturday by Libération, said [investigating magistrate Muriel] Josié questioned him about a lawsuit brought against the newspaper last year. The suit concerned an opinion article contributed by an Internet commentator and published by Liberation's Web site that described past legal troubles of Xavier Niel, founder of a French Internet access company called Free.
<...>
"I told the cops that there was perhaps another way to conduct themselves. The response in front of my son: 'You, you are worse than scum.' "
After a stop at the suburban Raincy police station, near his home, Filippis said, he was handcuffed with his arms behind his back and driven to the main Paris courthouse beside the Seine River in the center of the city. After taking all his personal effects, police ordered him to strip and bend over for a body search, he said, before locking him in a cell.
"The room had a table, a roll of toilet paper, a concrete sleeping platform with two blankets," Filippis said. "I saw a toilet in a corner. I sat on the table to avoid the cockroaches and moths."
About 10 a.m., two officers escorted him down a long corridor and ordered him to undress for another search. When he protested, Filippis said, he was told that the investigating magistrate had insisted on following procedure, and so he submitted a second time before being taken into Josié's office.
Josié said she had summoned him numerous times without success, he said, and asked him to identify his attorneys from a list of names. She refused his request to call the lawyers, he added, and so, in a testy exchange, he declined to respond further to her questions. After formally notifying him that he was being investigated in the libel case, she ordered him released, he said, and he found himself on the sidewalk in front of the courthouse.
What the f would make Josié and Niel to go after Filippis so crazily like this? Truth unfolds in time through a communal process.
See this commentary by the best French blog on law matters. Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères
His take on this story? In short: Welcome to my world.
There is a libel suit against the newspaper Libération. As it is the case in the French and other "non-Anglo" justice systems, the lawsuit is first investigated by an "investigating magistrate", before any possible indictments and eventual trial.
As the editor in chief of Libération at the time the alleged libel took place, de Filippis was summoned by the magistrate, judge Muriel Josié, by several letters sent to Libération offices.
First glitch: although the mail was received by the paper's attorneys, de Filippis apparently didn't defer to the summons and didn't show up at judge Josié office, for some reason still unclear. She then issued a warrant ("mandat d'amener") to have the police bring Mr de Filippis in front of her; so far, standard procedure.
Second glitch: the polce shows up at de Filippis residence at 6:40 AM, when the judge was obviously not ready to see him until several hours later. They then brought him to the police station and performed a body search (twice) which is both illegal in such a case but SOP nonetheless.
Once de Filippis finally sat in the judge's office, he asked for the presence of the Libération attorneys, instead of the public defender on duty, and declined to answer judge Josié's questions until then. Judge Josié notified an official indictment (for the libel case) to de Filippis and then released him ("Didn't have any other choice", wrote Eolas).
According to Eolas, this kind of treatment, at the limits of legality, is daily occurrence for his and fellow criminal defense attorneys clients. "We do protest these gross abuses of procedure, relentlessly. [...] To no avail." This story is getting media coverage only because the "subject" happens, for once, to be a journalist and former editor and not "someone named Mohamed".
Just business as usual in our Republic, where ordinary citizens are usually not sensitive to defense rights laws (you can't be too severe with the criminals, right?).
Eolas:"And one fine day, these [laws] could apply to you. You just see how well they're protecting you, then." Europeans think a hundred miles is a long way. Americans think a hundred years is a long time.
