It was twenty years ago, in Vilnius, Lithuania. On the night of Saturday July 26 to Sunday July 27, 2003, an argument broke out between Bertrand Cantat, leader of the rock group Noir Désir and his companion, actress Marie Trintignant, on the sidelines of a film shoot. Struck by Bertrand Cantat, the 41-year-old actress succumbed to her injuries on Friday August 1, 2003. Imprisoned in the Muret detention center, in the Haute-Garonne department, the singer served four years in prison and was released on Monday October 15, 2007. Almost twenty years later, the former vice-president of the application of sentences at the judicial court of Toulouse, Philippe Laflaquière, returned to the conditional release he granted to Bertrand Cantat. “All the criteria for release were met”he remembered for The Dispatch Saturday, August 19, 2023. According to him, “the prosecution itself was also in favor of the release” thanks to the exemplary behavior of the singer during his detention. However, Philippe Laflaquière confided: “I could have released him a year earlier”but Bertrand Cantat did not want “the least preferential treatment”.
The repercussions of the court decision
After the release of the singer of the group Noir Désir, the former vice-president of the application of sentences at the judicial court of Toulouse suffered numerous threats, in addition to daily insults. Faced with our colleagues from The Dispatchhe explained that he was “prepared for an avalanche of reactions”. Before making his decision, he had received “a horrible threatening letter whose author could not be identified”. To protect himself as much as possible from public opinion, Philippe Laflaquière has “isolated”. “I did not venture on social networks, sure to receive insults or threats from the famous ‘media court’“he specified. The former judge even admitted that it was becoming “increasingly difficult” for a magistrate “keep a certain serenity by strictly applying the law”even if it remained “primordial” despite the “pressures”. With this court case, the career of the former vice-president of sentences changed forever. But twenty years later, his “decision would be the same”, he saw fit to recall.