Two young people tried for desecration of a statue of the Virgin in Corsica

Two young people will be judged for having desecrated a statue of the Virgin in Corsica, the Ajaccio prosecutor's office announced on Friday, specifying that they were required to leave the island, in the grip of strong indignation after a video of their actions on social networks.

On Thursday, hundreds of people demonstrated on a roundabout in Porto-Vecchio where the statue was vandalized, but also in front of the gendarmerie: a wooden coffin was exhibited, with the names of the two accused on papers. The events took place on Thursday shortly before 3:00 a.m. One of the young people, “hanging from the statue, mimed a sexual act while making comments with sexual and sexist connotations” while “his partner filmed the scene” indicates a press release from the Ajaccio prosecutor's office.

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Recognized from videos circulating on social networks, the two seasonal workers employed in the hotel and catering industry, aged 21 and 24, will be judged by the criminal court on November 16, according to the same source. They are being prosecuted for “serious damage during a meeting to the statue of the Virgin Mary to the detriment of the parish and the town hall of Porto-Vecchio” but also for “sexual exhibition”, indicates the prosecution.

They are placed under judicial supervision and must “refrain from appearing in Corsica”. “This judicial control leads to an immediate departure from Corsica for the two defendants,” indicates the prosecution, recognizing that the case “has generated a very strong impact” locally.

The condemnation was unanimous within the political class, on a Mediterranean island where fervent Catholicism is practiced. “If I were the author of this desecration, I would question the reasons for my presence in Corsica” tweeted the mayor of Bonifacio, Jean-Charles Orsucci. “By not respecting the values ​​and traditions of our island, he is no longer welcome here.”

The mayor of Bastia, for his part, Gilles Simeoni, while recognizing the “stupefaction”, “emotion” and “anger” throughout Corsica, called for “rejecting the temptation of one-upmanship and demagoguery”, indicating that it was up to criminal justice “to punish the perpetrators of the acts, after a fair trial.” In a public post on Facebook, journalist Paul-Mathieu Santucci regretted “one-upmanship” during the demonstrations. “There was a Virgin on the ground. It had to be raised. Some preferred to bring a coffin,” he wrote: a coffin that “says that since the other has crossed one line, we can cross the next.”