Departure of the Auch public prosecutor, Clémence Meyer

The public prosecutor of Auch Clémence Meyer, on the front line during the Lyhanna affair, has left her post and will not return, ICI Occitanie learned Monday August 31 from the general prosecutor of the Agen Court of Appeal. The magistrate was replaced, before an appointment was published in the Official Journal. However, there is nothing to confirm at this stage that the departure of Clémence Meyer is directly linked to the Lyhanna affair. The 11-year-old schoolgirl was found dead on June 4 in Fleurance (Gers). Since the indictment of the main suspect, Jérôme Barella, criticism of the judicial failings in this case has continued to intensify.

“I have no information on the reason for the departure of this prosecutor,” indicates Justine Probst, national secretary of the Magistrates’ Union at ICI Occitanie. “If it were a political decision, it would be completely scandalous” she continues, the Lyhanna affair being “a systemic problem and a lack of resources imposed on the prosecution”. “I am not talking about the Lyhanna affair,” said Maître François Roujou de Boubée, lawyer for the family of the 11-year-old schoolgirl at ICI Occitanie. The former prosecutor's secretariat assures that the magistrate "will not return", without further explanation.

After Lyhanna's death, it was shown that Jérôme Barella had previously been the subject of several complaints for sexual violence against minors, without being heard. In this context, the Auch prosecutor, singled out for her inaction, had been the target of death threats on social networks. The Ministry of Justice filed a complaint on June 5 with the Paris prosecutor's office and the national center for the fight against online hatred.