Chirac laments 'legal disaster'
2005-12-05 22:50
Paris - French President Jacques Chirac has sent a letter of apology to each of 13 people who were wrongfully accused of child sex offences in one of the country's biggest judicial scandals, their lawyers said on Monday.
"In the name of the justice system of which I am the guarantor, I am anxious to present my regret and apologies for what will always be seen an unprecedented judicial disaster," Chirac wrote in the letter.
With three inquiries under way into the roles of the justice system, police and social services in the affair, Chirac said he would "take personal care that all the consequences of these inquiries are correctly drawn and the appropriate punishments applied".
"In the same way the necessary reforms will be put in place so that a tragedy like this never happens again," he said.
Last week five men and a woman who were convicted of taking part in a network of sexual abuse of children in the northern town of Outreau were acquitted on appeal.
Seven others were acquitted at the original trial in 2004, and an eighth committed suicide while under investigation.
Only four of the 18 originally charged were guilty of the offences.
The case raised troubling questions about the willingness of social services and psychiatric experts to accept uncorroborated allegations made by young children, and about the power given to lone examining magistrates under the French judicial system.
- SAPA