They brandish invoices for radiators, delivery notes for windows. They detail the renovation of their apartment and swear that, if they had known, they would have removed their tenant from a building that had been paralyzed since mid-October 2018 and was doomed to inevitable collapse. In short, they claim that they are not slumlords.
The owners of four of the ten small studios at 65 rue d’Aubagne, in Marseille, are the defendants in the last hour of the trial for the deadly collapses of November 5, 2018, summoned before the criminal court in parts civilians, rescued occupants or relatives of one of the eight victims. They must answer for involuntary manslaughter, endangerment or subjection to unworthy housing conditions.
A plumber, an art historian and retired professor, a former professor and a lawyer who was also vice-president (Les Républicains) of the regional council thus find their inaction questioned while their tenants raised the alarm… in the desert. “Of course, we believe it is urgent, but the collapse is unimaginable”responds one of the owners to the president of the court, who is setting the alerts end by end: the showers that empty on the floor below, the incessant sound of doors that have to be opened or kicked shut, the cracks that widen from overnight…
“It’s not red, it’s ultrared”
With a vigor that earned him a courtesy reminder from the court, on Wednesday, November 20, Xavier Cachard, lawyer and close to the president of the regional council of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, Renaud Muselier (Renaissance), scrap, in his as accused, with his companions from the civil parties. “Many experts told us that the building was not in danger of ruin. In retrospect, everything shows that there was an emergency but if the experts did not see it, how can I, a lawyer, know? » He denies that number 65 rue d’Aubagne was an abandoned building and provides ten years of household bills and ladder work. “Or 375 euros per month”takes him back to the M jumpmy Brice Grazzini, an attorney for the families of three victims, while the problems in the building were structural. “We are not talking about mailboxes in poor condition”the lawyer screams.
A year before the tragedy, a structural studies office and an expert cited in a civil suit between the co-owners of numbers 65 and 67 rue d’Aubagne observed a structural weakness, mentioned “a real risk to property and people in the short term” and inform the city. “How not to react to this alert? It’s not red, it’s ultrared.M questionsmy Benoît Candon, defender of the building’s occupants.
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