The trial of ten men accused of profiting from the dementia-suffering multi-billionaire Liliane Bettencourt enters its final stages on Monday, after three weeks of hearings. The court in Bordeaux has heard the extraordinary detail of how a disparate group of defendants, including high-society dandies, wealth managers, lawyers, solicitors and a former minister, gravitated around the fortune of the L’Oréal cosmetic company heiress, as first revealed by Mediapart in 2010. This week the court in Bordeaux will proceed with the last cross-examinations, before hearing the final arguments of the defence and prosecution. Mediapart’s legal affairs correspondent Michel Deléan, present in court since the start of the case, reports on the outcome so far.
Next month will mark the 100th anniversary of the assassination of France's revered socialist leader Jean Jaurès, an icon and figure of reference for the French Left. Among the various works published in tribute to Jaurès on the centenary of his death, a book published last month focuses upon the largely ignored and extraordinary outcome of the trial of his killer, acquitted by a jury despite assuming full responsibility for his act, which he carried out alone and in front of numerous witnesses. The story of the trial, held shortly after the end of World War One, is also that of the political and social atmosphere prevalent in France after the 1918 armistice, when Jaurès' pre-war, outspoken pacifist stand had become regarded by some with hateful contempt. Michel Deléan reports.
On October 27th, 2005, two police officers chased three teenagers into an electricity sub-station in a Parisian suburb where two of them died after being electrocuted. Their deaths provoked major riots around Paris and across France. Nearly eight years later a French court has ruled that the two officers should stand trial, on charges of failing to provide assistance to persons in danger. Mediapart's legal affairs correspondent Michel Deléan reports on the complex background to this high-profile case.
