It was an expected decision, in an emblematic case of the human drama that unfolds daily on the Canal. While more than 25,000 immigrants have managed to cross the Strait of Pas-de-Calais this year to reach England aboard improvised inflatable boats, the investigation into the shipwreck of November 24, 2021 off the coast of Calais, the most serious that has occurred so far the date, Perhaps you are about to know its epilogue.
In an expected decision, on Wednesday, October 2, the investigative chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal rejected requests for annulment of proceedings filed by several defendants in this case. The investigation aims to shed light on the circumstances that led to the deaths of at least twenty-seven people, mainly from Iraqi Kurdistan.
The request was presented by soldiers from the regional surveillance and rescue operational center (Cruz) Gris-Nez (Pas de Calais) and a ship from the national navy, at sea on the night of the sinking. Seven of them were accused, in May and June 2023, of failing to assist a person in danger. The investigation revealed that no French media came to the rescue of the ship in danger, despite the numerous calls for help made by the migrants that night.
According to the transcript of these calls, while the migrants explain that they are “in the water”that“It’s cold” and what are they “dying”The Cross does not send any ship to meet him. Likewise, the investigation showed that the National Navy patrol boat, the Flamencowhich was at sea that night, was not monitoring the international distress frequency and ignored the four “mayday” alert messages issued by the British, asking all ships in the area to assist the ship. It is suspected that the French emergency services waited for the inflatable boat to pass through English waters before unloading it onto their British counterparts.
“Relief and satisfaction”
The defendants’ lawyers wanted to cancel an entire part of the investigation, particularly the hearings of their clients or the wiretaps that led to their indictment. To this end, they argued that the national jurisdiction to combat organized crime in Paris should not have investigated the responsibility of the military, considering that the latter belong to a specialized jurisdiction due to their status.
This point of view is also that of the Ministry of the Armed Forces, which, requested by the Paris prosecutor’s office on the convenience of prosecuting the military – as required by the code of criminal procedure – had sent an opinion to this effect in December 2022. The Prosecutor’s Office considered that “the investigation into the network that organized the passage of the victims to England (…) cannot be dissociated from the investigation of the circumstances that led to the shipwreck and the lack of effective assistance provided to the victims.as defended in January 2023, by expanding the investigations.
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