Article published in the paper edition of Inrockuptibles of February 20, 2011 ,
supplementing the first web version recovery here ...
Rebound in Case Tarnac Julien Levy Yldune Coupat and will complain against the police for forgery and use of forgery of public documents, witness tampering and illegal interception .
A new round begins in the battle between the "group Tarnac "indicted for acts of terrorism, police and judges involved in the investigation. After requesting the reclassification of the facts in simple sabotage - refused in May 2009 - cancellation of pleadings - refused in October 2010 - and the implementation of several measures of investigation that might exonerate them - refused or postponed - the indicted pass to the next level.
According to information collected by The Inrocks they will file three complaints (cons X but to clear the officers of the Sub-Directorate terrorism, SDAT) for illegal interceptions, witness tampering and false and usages of forgery of public documents.
Julien Levy Yildune Coupat and hope to demonstrate in court that the minutes of spinning on the night of 7 to 8 November 2008, and successive versions police tending to contradict rather than the confirm, constitute a deception on the SDAT to affirm their guilt without proof.
That night, some twenty officers and SDAT DCRI after a Mercedes occupied by two "members of the anarcho-autonomous" Seine-et-Marne. They see the couple stopped at a pizza parlor, sleeping in the car Trilport then hit the road before parking near a railway in the town of Dhuisy. Then, their vehicle returned to Paris. In the early morning, near where the Mercedes was parked, the passage of the first TGV causes a shower of sparks that attracts the attention of police. The suspects under surveillance have they committed an act of sabotage?
On the basis of the minutes of spinning, now known as the "104 Minutes", Julien Levy Yldune Coupat and are arrested, indicted and imprisoned for direction a conspiracy-oriented terrorist. There were no deaths or injuries, no train was derailed. Or photographs at the scene, or DNA traces, or confessions do not come to prove their guilt. Two and a half years after the initiation of the investigation, ten people were indicted.
The story of that night varies according to police and questioned the contradictions made by the defense. The course of these few hours is unclear whether the judge has demanded the police, one year after the events, they explained the report. They delivered their report in June. "The new performance parts, which should 'clarify' certain points of inconsistent police investigation, have said that new improbabilities " believe the lawyers indicted.
mounting police work or pig? Anyway , the result largely undermines the professionalism of the police terrorism. The temporal impossibilities, inconsistencies and unanswered questions have therefore decided Coupat and Julien Levy Yldune to sue for forgery and use of forgery of public documents. This crime, if committed by persons vested with public authority, may be punished by fifteen years in prison and 225 000 euros fine. They also bear witness tampering complaint: a knowledge Coupat had testified anonymously against them later retracted, speaking of police pressure. A complaint for illegal wiretapping of groceries Tarnac made prior to the start of the preliminary investigation and discovered by chance by an officer of France Telecom, completes the picture.
1. A timely new evidence
few days before the filing of complaints that have come, Le Nouvel Observateur echoes a new track, appropriately communicated by the investigators. In February 2010, the brigade searched the river Marne, 20 km from the TGV routes. She finds two PVC tubes of two meters long, one inside the other by a sleeve covered with adhesive, was used as the pole to hoist the hook on the wire.
No DNA, "hardware" although late, no matter: according to police, the couple would get rid of these tubes in the river during a stop on the way home. Several questions remain: why search the Marne over a year and a half after the fact? How to assign Julien Coupat, no police officer has been out poles and jump into the water, the cash purchase of these items at a time when he escaped scrutiny? Why the police does not mention that she is now the existence of a GPS beacon on the Mercedes, illegal device unless it is authorized by a judge?
2. A witness under pressure?
While the saboteurs are suspected in police custody in November 2008, SDAT shall hear a witness in X, which the press later revealed the identity: Jean-Hugues Bourgeois, an organic farmer from the Puy de Dome. In his deposition, he described the group as Tarnac "a sectarian group whose members have been indoctrinated by Julien Coupat. [...] The latter wants the overthrow of the state through destabilizing actions that could have gone to violent actions ".
A month later, heard in his true identity, it shrinks. In an interview TF1 granted in November 2009, Bourgeois explains that his testimony in X has been requested by the SDAT, and that he signed a statement prepared in advance. These factors motivate the complaint and Yldune Coupat Julien Levy for subornation of perjury, an offense punishable by three years in prison and 45,000 euros fine.
3. A botched reconstruction
Lawyers Group Tarnac that link since the beginning of the investigation the "peculiarities" and "contradictions" of the PV 104 (signed by Lieutenant Handlebars) and additional information (signed by the Lieutenant and Captain Lambert Mancheron), demanded a hue and cry a reconstruction replay last night, attended by judges Thierry Fragnoli, Edmond Brunaud and Yves Jannier , police officers present on that date, check the timing, the positions of each vehicle trips.
If the number of police officials had six SDAT "assisted by a monitoring group of the DCRI, a total score of officials (...) carry a dozen vehicles, motorcycles and unmarked vehicles observation " placed" choke points ", it knows no more. Despite the judge's request to clarify the organization of the spinning, the SDAT invokes "policing techniques that should remain confidential" .
reconstitution took place on the night of 13 to 14 January 2011. Summoned to Dhuisy to 2 am, the lawyers realize that judges are Trilport, 30 miles away. We must join them. Upon arrival, the judges decide to move Dhuisy. It is 3:30, an hour and a half round trips and wasted time. It remains only half an hour to spend on track before the station should not reinvest.
Everyone is tense. Judges refuse to note the submissions of counsel for the record, then yield to force shouting matches. The police on site are not the same as 2008. Those participated in a scenario in camera, ten days before, with the judges but without lawyers. "A dress rehearsal to verify what operations could be inconvenient for the prosecution "by the defense, which denounced in a letter to the judges their" unacceptable bias "and" absence of evidence to discharge the case. " They require a new reconstruction.
4. A pedestrian on the railway tracks?
While some minutes talking about a vehicle parked near the tracks, others suggest a preview pedestrian on the tracks. Lieutenant-Colonel Gosset, a policeman in charge of investigating the damage, said he talked with an officer of the SDAT. The latter had told him "have followed and observed an individual who was stationed at the intersection between the D23 and the TGV East for about twenty minutes between 4:00 and 4:20. This person has gained control of the secure station without being able to detect his actions ".
In the PV 104, no allusion to a pedestrian. The dangers of phone Arab, says the SDAT, which disavows the gendarme force repeated and distorted information, the vehicle parked would become a pedestrian in his mouth. SDAT does not develop the analysis on the second part of the sentence, that the pedestrian-vehicle entered the railroad tracks. Or explain how or Yldune Coupat Julien Levy, monitored by twenty police specialists, could, unseen, out of their car, cross a fence six feet high, and once on the tracks with their headlamps, hoist a rebar with a pole five feet onto the catenary.
5. The location of the car Coupat
Where was parked Mercedes Julien Coupat of 4:00 to 4:20? Since the beginning of the investigation, the police are at a specific location: a service road of the station, just beneath a railway bridge.
However, in that additional information be forwarded to the judge last May, the SDAT is another car on the service road, about a hundred yards from the bridge. For lawyers, "the new positioning of the vehicle is in total contradiction with what was written and supported by all stakeholders procedure ". Other acts of investigation put the Mercedes "Under the Bridge" and even "on deck". And Julien Levy Yldune Coupat, they have always denied being parked near the tracks.
6. Seeking evidence of hazardous
Once the Mercedes part Micmac on police behavior. According to the first PV, they park in its place. According to the new version, they were positioned on the opposite side, "not to pollute places could have been committed an offense." Yet Captain Lambert writes: "No freezing places for preservation of evidence and clues have been made."
Where the police are parked at this moment? How many vehicles? One by the police, two by captain Lambert. Why do not they dig the driveway to find any traces of the passage of Coupat? A team of SDAT then went onto the tracks, looking for possible clues "by stepping over the fence." Two meters high to climb, probably with the help of seven-league boots ...
7. Police and ubiquitous
When Julian Coupat leaves the first track railway, part of the police following him. Officials remained Dhuisy find "a shower of sparks accompanied by a large popping noise" at 5:10, the passage of the first TGV. According to the PV 104 and their subsequent explanations, they go immediately report to their superiors. At 5:25, all police leave the scene towards Trilport to search a trash can in which they saw Julien Coupat throwing things yesterday. They arrive on site in five minutes, that is to say they have traveled the path to 324 km / h on average ... in the trash, the police station hours are supersonic and packaging headlamp.
A statement provided by the telephone demarcation police nevertheless raised doubt. While they are all supposed to have left Dhuisy, the record shows that police have placed calls from this county until 6 o'clock in the morning.
