The Syndicat de la magistrature and the Syndicat des Avocats de France inform the citizens that, on Monday February 27, 2006, in the afternoon, a Moroccan national, in the process of divorce, who was summoned at the request of his wife before the business judge Familiales was arrested in the corridor of the Palais de Justice in Rouen on the order of the Prefect of Seine-Maritime.
The signatory trade unions denounce the development and trivialization of unfair administrative practices which encourage citizens and litigants to denounce.
They underline the seriousness of the breach thus made to public morals by a State which used for repressive purposes the knowledge it had of the obligation in which the litigant found himself to appear before the divorce judge to assert his rights.
They express their deep sadness at the resulting misuse of administrative ethics.
They recall that the courthouses are not only a public place, which the prefectural authority tends to transform into a hunting ground for men, but also a space of safety and freedom for litigants who must be able to refer freely and in serenity to the summons addressed to them and ensure their obligation to appear before the civil judge without risking being arrested for other causes.
This incident confirms the analyzes of European international bodies on the worsening of human rights violations in France.
Litigants must be informed of the risks they now run by going to the courthouses of our Republic.