On 15 December last year, the French Court of Revision and Reconsideration overturned Farid El Hairy’s conviction for rape and rehabilitated his innocence, nineteen years after he was convicted by the Cour d’assises des mineurs du Nord. In addition to this return to the truth, judicial history will remember these words from the President, expressing with modesty a sentiment that nevertheless struggles to conceal the heaviness implicit in the mission of judging: ‘On a personal level,the dignity we have witnessed leads me to hope that, despite the limited nature of the reparation we are offering you, the future for you will look different from this day forward’.
We could choose to look at this affair solely from the angle of a judicial affair that became a judicial truth before becoming a judicial error. But at a time when victims of sexual violence are free to speak out, it raises the question of the weight of the accusations made by complainants in criminal proceedings. In 2003, Farid El Hairy was convicted because the truth told by his accuser had been heard. In 2022, he was exonerated because, once again, the new truth put forward by his accuser had been heard.
In fact, both his guilt and his innocence – the rain and the sunshine of his life – were in the hands of this young woman, or rather in the mystery behind her accusations, which the Assize Court had not seen fit to investigate.
But was there any mention whatsoever of the truth defended all these years by Farid El Hairy himself? All we know is that he has always maintained his innocence without ever being heard. If not all women are liars, how many of them have had or will have the courage to write to the Public Prosecutor’s Office years later to say that they had lied?
To read the rest of the article, click here: ‘La pluie et le beau temps de Farid El Hairi – JCP G, 09 January 2023’.