The former director of Sciences Po Paris Mathias Vicherat was sentenced to five months in prison for violence against his ex-partner, director Anissa Bonnefont, who was sentenced to eight months in prison for violence against him, on Friday, November 29.
Mathias Vicherat’s defense has announced that he will appeal, “because he is not half innocent, he is completely innocent”. Anissa Bonnefont’s council did not want to react immediately, according to Agence France-Presse. The two defendants appeared on October 24 for the violence they accused each other of and the prosecutor had requested a six-month suspended prison sentence.
After being taken into police custody in early December 2023, they did not file a complaint, but the prosecutor’s office opened an investigation. The students then occupied Sciences Po to demand Mr. Vicherat’s resignation and he temporarily withdrew. He resigned in March, the moment he learned of his summons to trial.
“Particularly dysfunctional relationship”
The court found him guilty of violence without total incapacity for work (ITT) by his spouse, for strangling his partner in July 2023, but he was acquitted of the charge of violence with ITT of more than eight days, which corresponded to a wrist fracture while trying to grab the phone he was holding on September 30, 2023.
“It is proven that [ces] “The injuries were caused during a very serious argument between a couple.” during which Mme Bonnefont “admitted to having been violent”declared the president when making the decision. In this case, the court considered that the elements were “insufficient to characterize” the offense and “The causal link is that injuries can be the result of several different behaviors”. He also authorized the non-registration of Mr. Vicherat in his criminal record.
The accused was found guilty of violence with ITT for more than eight days, during the year 2023, for having handed over “slaps”as well as for violence with ITT less than eight days for having handed over “slaps and punches” on December 3rd.
In both cases, the court mentioned having taken into account “the context of a particularly dysfunctional relationship for many months”adding, for Mr. Vicherat, that there was “He regularly suffered violence from [sa] buddy “. A ban on mutual contact was imposed for three years with provisional enforcement.
