Trial of Rohan Rane in Paris: a diplomatic and cautious closed session

At the Paris Assize Court,

A diplomatic and cautious closed session. The trial of Rohan Rane, tried for forcing minors to inflict acts of sexual torture on the Internet from 2019 to 2021, will take place without press and without an audience. The specially composed Assize Court deliberated in favor of the closed session requested by the Advocate General.

For “the preservation of the interests of the victims”, “girls aged 13 or 14” at the time of the events, victims of “acts of barbarity and torture”, he asked to close access to the hearing, which opened this Monday and whose verdict is scheduled for Friday. The civil parties, through the voice of their counsel Hippolyte Marquetty, nevertheless agreed to testify “because they want to make it known”. Highlighting “surprising, new facts” that “we need to understand”, the lawyer insists on the “pedagogical virtue for society in general. »

Intimidation of victims and witnesses

But the representative of the public prosecutor raised a major argument: the “exemplary” cooperation with the American authorities in this case. They warned of the risks for the protection of victims, magistrates, lawyers, and informed their French counterparts that people claiming to belong to the criminal group of Rohan Rane have already “sought to intimidate victims and witnesses” on American soil.

In 2021, it was already the FBI which alerted the French services of the presence of this Indian student in Antibes, at the head of a network which “advocated neo-Nazism, nihilism and pedophilia as fundamental principles”, according to American justice.

Preserving Franco-American cooperation

Stressing that “cases will multiply” and therefore request a “certain number of exchanges in future cases”, this relationship must be preserved. “If we go against this expectation, cooperation risks becoming fragile,” warns the magistrate.