The French Foreign Legion’s notoriously tough approach to military training is to be examined in a court in Lyon where four officers and junior officers face trial for manslaughter over the death of six recruits who died in an avalanche, reports The Guardian.
Lawyers have accused the elite force of a “lack of humanity” in pushing soldiers to their limit after an exercise on a mountainside in January 2016 left six dead and seven injured. The group of 52 soldiers came from a southern French unit of the male-only force which is made up of largely foreign recruits.
In the final stages of preparation before being sent to French operations in west Africa, the men were ordered to enter a difficult area of mountainside in Valfréjus, Savoie, with sealskins, skis and rescue equipment. The exposed, uneven mountainside, at an altitude of 2,600 metres (8,530ft), was treacherous and weather conditions were risky.
At about 1pm there was what was described as a terrible cracking sound and a cry of “Avalanche!”. Six soldiers died: an Albanian, a Hungarian, a Nepalese, a Moldovan, an Italian and a Madagascan who had taken French nationality. Seven others were wounded.
The investigation found an expedition on that mountainside required extreme vigilance and knowledge on the ground. The trial, which begins on Thursday, will examine whether the officers failed to consult local mountain experts, gendarmes and weather forecasters.
Jean-Michel Quillardet, a lawyer for a Ukrainian soldier who was injured, said the men were pushed to their limit and continued the mission because they did not want to let their captain down. He noted that the most senior members of the hierarchy were not on the march but instead involved in administrative tasks that day.