Stele in homage to Simone Veil degraded in Brittany: two men indicted – archyde

Two men were indicted and placed under judicial supervision, Thursday, August 26, heads of “Aggravated degradation, aggravated public insults and incitement to hatred”, after the desecration of the stele erected in honor of Simone Veil (1927-2017) in Perros-Guirec, in Côtes-d’Armor, the Saint-Brieuc prosecutor’s office announced in a press release.

Originally from Côtes-d’Armor and in their sixties, the two men have no “Condemnation [inscrite] to their criminal record “ nor of “Link between them”, adds the deputy prosecutor of the Republic of Saint-Brieuc, Antoine Loussot.

The first man, arrested Tuesday and placed in police custody, admitted to having “Prepared and distributed” leaflets, but denied having committed the degradations, reports the deputy prosecutor. According to a source close to the file questioned by Agence France-Presse, it was about “Hostile and offensive leaflets towards Simone Veil”.

Swastikas and anti-Semitic tags

The second man, benefiting from a curatorship measure, “Presented voluntarily” at the gendarmerie, Monday at the end of the afternoon, and recognized the first facts of degradation. Twice at the beginning of August, the stele had been soiled by jets of excrement or even mayonnaise. Then swastika tags were discovered on August 11. But the man did not acknowledge the facts as of August 14, when anti-Semitic tags were discovered on the stele. These facts seem to be“Another mode of operation” and stay “Without identified author” at this point, adds the parquet.

“The motive of their acts remains imprecise and will have to be analyzed in the light of the psychological and psychiatric expertise which will be requested”, specifies the deputy prosecutor. Judicial information “Will aim, among other things, to carry out personality assessments and to look for possible complicity or [des] co-authors “.

Installed on the square of the town hall, renamed square Simone-Veil, the stone was inaugurated in November 2017.

Simone Veil, who was deported to Auschwitz at the age of 16, notably gave her name to the law of January 17, 1975 legalizing the voluntary termination of pregnancy. From 1979 to 1982, she was President of the European Parliament. Elected to the French Academy in 2008, she was also president of the Foundation for the memory of the Shoah, from 2001 to 2007.