⚖️ An expressly found violation of the right to a trial within a reasonable time
The Court, citing the provisions of the preliminary article of the Code of Criminal Procedure and Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, found a violation of the defendants’ right to be tried within a reasonable time. It emphasized in particular that the length of the proceedings was not attributable to any maneuver on the part of the defense, whose sole recourse had been to “legitimately request the opportunity to examine more than 11,000 pieces of evidence” submitted shortly before the conclusion of the preliminary investigation.
Thus, and in accordance with the case law of the Court of Cassation, as established in the Criminal Chamber’s ruling of November 9, 2022, in the case known as “the La Défense boiler room,” the Court stated that it must take “into consideration the possible deterioration of evidence attributable to the time that has elapsed since the date of the events and the resulting impossibility for the parties to discuss its value and scope.”
And it concluded: the proceedings, “which have lasted a total of 16 years since the complaint was filed, do not meet the legal and treaty requirements to be tried within a reasonable time.”
The court also assesses the practical effects of this length of time: “The age of the events distorts the rules governing the presentation of evidence,” forcing the court to examine conduct dating back “19 years before the trial,” even though the defendants “have not been heard in the proceedings for more than seven years.”
