ALAIN JOCARD / AFP
Patrick Bruel, here in October 2023, in Paris.
• They attack the treatment of the media, judging its word « inaudible » since the first revelations.
• And, conversely, they argue that only the police and magistrates are, according to them, capable of hearing the words of the complainants, not the journalists.
« We are facing an unprecedented media surge.» These words are those of Christophe Ingrain, one of Patrick Bruel’s lawyers, who in the columns of Parisianthis Thursday, June 11, not only spoke about the indictment of his client, but above all insisted on the treatment reserved for him in the press.
Several formulas recur: he speaks of “media climate” against him, or even with a “media pressure“unpublished. The decision not to send the singer to provisional detention demonstrates, according to him, “that justice is not served on the sets or on social networks ». « Justice does not come before public opinion.” insists the lawyer very accustomed to media affairs having in the past advised the former Minister of Justice Éric Dupond-Moretti and the former president Nicolas Sarkozy.
A line of defense similar to that of Fanny Collin, her colleague and collaborator in the case. According to her, the court remains “the only place where it is appropriate in legal matters to explain oneself ”. Au micro de BFMshe believes that “It’s not on a TV set. This is not during a press conference. It is before the police and judicial authorities. »
Since Daniela Elstner’s first testimony at Mediapart in March, several other complainants were heard in the media anonymously or with their faces uncovered, such as the host Flavie Flament or more recently a press officer named Karine Viseur, who filed a complaint three months ago.
Is it too much for the defense? “Since this affair was born in the media, the voice, the words of Patrick Bruel have been absolutely inaudible“, denounces Fanny Collin, always on BFM. It is on Instagram, where he denied all the facts with which he is accused, that his client has for the moment preferred to express himself. As a reminder, this was during the month of May.
She, too, is experienced in defending leading figures, and particularly those accused of sexual violence: she has notably defended Ibrahim Maalouf, the director Christophe Ruggia, and the PSG player Achraf Hakimi. The singer’s third lawyer Céline Lasek is also not new to highly publicized cases; she accompanied Pierre Palmade during his trial.
« In reality, you don’t know anything about it»
This Friday, Fanny Collin did it again at franceinfonow targeting Marine Turchi, journalist from Mediapart « who does not hide the fact that she has very clearly taken a positionin favor of the cellswho would have reason to complain about Patrick Bruel“. The latter, which has partly managed “the Bruel file” since the first revelations, recently declared that it had never received “so many testimonies ”.
For Fanny Collin, “ce “It is not the role of journalists to take the place of a judicial police officer or a magistrate.” To the journalist on set who questioned her about the similarities in the alleged facts, she decided: “In reality, you don’t know anything about it. »
« You did not have access (to the file), you as a journalist, and you were not party to the procedure. You do not have access to the raw data“, the lawyer annoys. Before calling back: “The testimony that must be taken into account is the testimony as it is given before a judicial authority ”.
Patrick Bruel mass and exam
Why? Because, according to the singer’s lawyer, she is “the only competent authority to collect the words of a complainant“, as she already said on BFMTV. “Because a police officer or a magistrate is trained for this, to ask certain questions in a certain way“, unlike a journalist, “whatever his quality may be“, for whom “it’s not his job ”.
For the moment, the fate of his client is still in the hands of justice. Indicted this Wednesday, June 10, in four cases, which took place between 2008 and 2019, Patrick Bruel was placed under the more favorable status of assisted witness in four other cases.
The proceedings of a dozen other women denouncing similar, but previous, facts were attached to the judicial information, questioning the limitation period (noted in particular for a rape case in Grenoble, in 2000) in this thick section. A judicial investigation is also opened in Belgium for sexual assault.
