Lyhanna case: Auch prosecutor Clémence Meyer transferred to Bordeaux court
Clémence Meyer has left her post in Auch after requesting a transfer to the Bordeaux general prosecutor's office. She had received death threats following revelations about dysfunctions in the Lyhanna case.
Clémence Meyer leaves Auch after Lyhanna case
Clémence Meyer, prosecutor of the Republic in Auch, has left her post, BFM TV learned on Monday 31 August directly from the magistrate, confirming information from ICI Occitanie. Meyer told BFM TV that she had submitted a request for transfer to join the Bordeaux general prosecutor's office.
The magistrate had found herself at the centre of the news following the Lyhanna case, a young woman found dead in the Gers on 4 June. A suspect, Jérôme Barella, had been arrested in this matter.
It emerged that Barella had been the subject of several complaints and reports for sexual violence against a minor, without any arrest or judicial summons resulting from them. These revelations had provoked a significant shockwave in public opinion and among the political class.
Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin had requested the opening of an administrative inquiry into the dysfunctions in the procedure, mentioning "possible sanctions" against magistrates if failings were confirmed. The judiciary as a whole had been exposed to strong criticism concerning the shortcomings that had led to Lyhanna's death.
Frédéric Chevallier, prosecutor of the Republic in Chartres and president of the National Conference of Prosecutors of the Republic, had regretted on RMC that magistrates from the prosecutor's office were being "thrown to the wolves", "particularly our colleague in Auch". The Justice Ministry had also filed a complaint following death threats targeting Clémence Meyer.
A judicial source told BFM TV that the prosecutor "was not subject to any disciplinary procedure following the Lyhanna case".
By contrast, Justice Minister Darmanin had announced in June that he had initiated "a disciplinary procedure, an administrative inquiry" to sanction the "serious failings" of a deputy prosecutor at Auch's prosecutor's office.
Source: BFM TV