It’s a priceless relief. This Friday, July 21, the Constitutional Council validated the law of April 2021 which had established an age threshold of non-consent and made any sexual intercourse between a minor under the age of 15 and an adult aged equal to rape. five years or more. .
A priority question of constitutionality
On May 26 the wise » had been invested with a priority question of constitutionality. They were therefore called upon to rule on a provision foreseen in the text, namely that “any act of sexual penetration, of whatever nature, or any bucco-genital act committed by an adult on the person of a minor under the age of fifteen or committed on the perpetrator by the minor, when the difference in age between the eldest and the the minor is at least five years old” constitutes rape, and is therefore punishable by twenty years’ imprisonment.
This request, presented to the Court of Cassation, is brought by two lawyers, Me Louis Heloun and Me Antoine Ory. The first defends a man currently indicted for rape committed on a child with an age difference of at least 5 years under the law whose repeal he seeks emphasizes the Women’s Foundation.
According to him, the text of the law violates the presumption of innocence, from “allowing the guilt to be held automatically”. Added to this, according to Mr. Heloun, the difficulty of proving that a defendant was well aware of their partner’s age.
His colleague, Me Ory, deplores a ” lack of gradation” in the seriousness of the facts that “completely disrupts the extent of the sanctions envisaged in this matter”as reported Publication.
The Constitutional Council sides with the associations
Fearing a terrible return to zero, several associations had come together to defend the text of the law in a petition which evoked a ” crucial decision for the protection of minors victims of sexual violence The signatories also fear that the essential work of the Independent Commission on Incest and Sexual Assault against Children (Ciivise) will not be renewed in the autumn.
“To challenge this law is to return to a situation where, from the age of 4, a child who had been penetrated by an adult had to experience coercion, threat, violence or surprise”had criticized the text of this petition, whose signatories include the lawyer Camille Kouchner or the former minister Elisabeth Moreno.
Fortunately, in the decision made this morning, the Elders finally held that the indictment, which does not require such acts to be committed by violence, coercion, threat or surprise, is not contrary to the Constitution, since “is not based on a presumption of the absence of the victim’s consent”.
” On the other hand, it is up to the judicial authorities to provide proof of everything of the constitutive elements of the offence, underlines the Council, for which the contested provisions therefore have ” neither for the purpose nor for the effect of establishing a presumption of guilt “.
With regard to the argument of the disproportionality of the sentences, the Constitutional Council also rejected this complaint, holding that ” the legislator, who intended to strengthen the protection (of) child victims of sexual offences, did not institute a manifestly disproportionate penalty “.
The associations have been attentively awaiting this decisive decision: “ Today the state is at a historic turning point: silencing the victims or giving new life to their words.And”.
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Source: Madmoizelle
Mary Crossley is an author at “The Fashion Vibes”. She is a seasoned journalist who is dedicated to delivering the latest news to her readers. With a keen sense of what’s important, Mary covers a wide range of topics, from politics to lifestyle and everything in between.
