The CJR dismisses the complaint against Gérald Darmanin for failure to assist a person in danger

The Requests Committee of the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR) has closed a complaint for “failure to assist a person in danger” filed against the Minister of Justice, Gérald Darmanin, by the mother of little Rosa, announced Monday the Attorney General at the Court of Cassation.

The Rosa affair emerged in the wake of Lyhanna's death. Suspect of the rape and murder of this eleven-year-old girl found dead on June 4 in Gers, Jérôme Barella had until then never been legally concerned, although he was the subject of a complaint filed in August 2025 by Rosa's mother. She accuses Jérôme Barella of having raped her daughter “around fifty” times.

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judicial “dysfunctions”

In her complaint received on July 1, Rosa's mother criticized the minister "for not having put the judicial institution in a position to ensure effective processing of complaints relating to sexual violence against minors, despite dysfunctions already identified in this area", recalled the Attorney General at the Court of Cassation, Rémy Heitz, in a press release.

But the CJR's requests commission, which decided to close the complaint on September 8, considered that the offenses of "endangering the lives of others" and "failure to assist a person in danger" were not characterized. This decision cannot be appealed. The offense of “endangering the lives of others” requires that a violation of a particular obligation of prudence and safety be established. However, the complaint does not refer to “any text providing for an obligation of this nature clearly applicable” to the Minister of Justice, the commission found.

Concerning the "failure to assist a person in danger", the commission "notes that +it does not follow from the circumstances+ that Mr. Darmanin was +personally aware+ that the minor was in a situation of danger of imminent seriousness", explained Mr. Heitz. “In such a sensitive matter, which shook the entire Nation, and which revealed the gaping flaws in our judicial institution, it is heartbreaking that the Requests Commission did not see fit to seriously examine the complaint filed,” the lawyer for Rosa's mother, Me Pierre Debuisson, lamented to AFP. He denounced a “terse decision” confirming “the impunity of the Minister of Justice... and of the administration of the Ministry of Justice”.