A case of French justice – a window on the nation
The burglary defendant hauled his loot in a taxi, the defense attorney wore slippers, and the judge deemed the victims guilty by reason of naiveté.
from the January 31, 2008 edition
Page 3 of 3
"It's your personality that this tribunal will examine," the judge told him.
"I am a schizophrenic," Dahib responded. "I can't understand myself, why I act as I do. I was destroyed by ... a lack of direction."
"By all your repeat offenses, you have entered in a sort of war with authority. How do you see your future, your occupation?" the judge asked.
"Anything you tell me to do today, any road, I'll take it," Dahib said.
In the French criminal justice system, judges consider the evidence but aren't obliged to justify their decision according to the evidence. Instead, the law requires a judge to "interrogate himself, in silence or meditation," to weigh the personality of the offender and the gravity of the offense.
The internal reflection took 20 minutes. Then the judge sentenced Dahib to two years in prison and one year of parole, with an admonition that he stick to any treatment provided for his mental illness. The year he spent in pretrial detention will be deducted as time served.
Theoretically, he must also pay tens of thousands of euros in damages and compensation to those he robbed. But in another twist of French justice, we victims were held responsible for 25 percent of our own losses.
As Dahib's lawyer put it, and as the judge agreed, we were criminally naive to leave our apartment keys in our mailboxes.
"He's a sick crook," he said. "But we have to take into account the victims' behavior. "None of the apartments was broken into. No letter box was damaged. You have all these thefts and no breaking and entering, and all because the victims carelessly left keys in their mailboxes."
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