The defendant came without a lawyer. “I don’t need it!” He believes. Instead, he is accompanied by his companion who, two months earlier, had accused him of violence.
In fact, on 9 August, around midnight, the police arrived in Algrange, at the home of the Portuguese-born couple. Through the window, neighbors and police see her lying on the ground, scared, next to a man standing, beside himself. The TV and the piece of furniture she was leaning on are broken. The victim confides in the authorities as soon as they arrive. She describes a kick, a punch thrown by her partner who threw her to the ground. She repeats the same thing during her audition, which she signs. A medical certificate prescribes two days of total incapacity for work.
“Collective hallucinations”
At the courthouse bar this Monday, October 10, the tone has changed. Lovers are closer than ever. The gentleman does not remember anything. Translated by an interpreter, he says he took medicine for back pain that evening. And the alcohol mixture wouldn’t work for him.
The lady confirms. Her memory is good, she says she doesn’t drink. But she totally changes her version of the evening. “I was on the ground because I wanted to check on my husband, I didn’t recognize him”, she explains now her, in Portuguese. According to her, the violence suffered was not voluntary. The police wouldn’t understand anything. In front of the magistrates, she promises not to speak French.
“Everyone then suffered from a collective hallucination,” jokes Thionville’s deputy prosecutor, Émeline Dannenberger. She remembers that her companion’s detailed statements are spread over five pages. This seems long for a victim who didn’t understand the questions. Especially since no interpreter was required.
The court adopts the same reasoning and sentences the accused, hitherto unknown to justice, to two months of suspended prison.
