The slap of Valls: a two-speed justice?
Expeditious justice? Preferential treatment ? Nay! The Appearance on Prior Recognition of Guilt is designed to be an expeditious procedure.
The case does not even go to court, with some exceptions if the judge wants to hear the defendant and his lawyer. It is an "administrative" procedure.
And St Brieuc is not Bobigny! The defendant, the prosecutor and the president of the court are on site, so as long as the defendant waives the 10-day cooling-off period, it is completed in 24 hours.
The fact that it is Valls only changed one thing: the qualification of the facts.
The penalty of willful violence (slapping) is aggravated if the victim is a person holding public authority !! The author incurs a minimum of 3 years and a fine of 45 euros before the criminal court (article 000-222 of the penal code).
The author was offered a 3-month sentence with Community Service, which he was free to accept or not.
Still, there is a major problem in this file. On a strictly legal level, article 495-16 of the Code of Criminal Procedure excludes the CRPC for press offenses, political crimes and manslaughter ... While obviously the motivations of this young man were precisely ... Political! And there, it is a real concern… which will certainly go by the wayside.
Without further clarification, we can also assume that the prosecution disqualified the facts, to retain only the contravention of intentional violence. But by pretending to ignore both the political stature of Valls, and the symbolic value of this slap, this CRPC reinforces the impression of two-speed justice.
Anyway, beyond the anecdote, it is not so sure that this expeditious justice reconciles the litigant with the justice.
Otherwise, to understand the simplicity and speed of the CRPC, here is a small diagram of this 3-beat waltz.
