Gendarmes evacuate the participants of the New Year’s rave party in Lieuron, in Ille-et-Vilaine. – AFP
They denounce “a media coup” and “expeditious justice”. Suspected of being the organizers of the rave party in Lieuron, south of Rennes (Ille-et-Vilaine), the four indicted people try to defend themselves. Accompanied by their lawyers, they agreed to speak to AFP when they are targeted by an investigation conducted by two investigating judges. Justice suspects them of having participated in the organization of the party which had brought together 2,400 people on New Year’s Eve. Several support rallies are announced this Saturday in several French cities.
“It was a party not jihad,” denounces Victor Lacroix, 31, who participated in the party. The young man would have gone there with friends and “seven liters of punch”. “There wasn’t that much danger. Lots of friends have been tested: we are all negative for Covid ”. The man is known in the free party world for having been the president of Média’son. His association had organized several rallies after the death of Steve Maia Caniço, in a techno evening during the 2019 Music Festival in Nantes, marked by a controversial intervention by the police.
“We’re all going to be relaxed”
He was arrested while driving his truck while on his way to his parents’ place, near Tours, and spent 42 hours in police custody. “I’ve asked them many times: what do you have against me? They were never able to answer. It’s just a media stunt. We’re all going to be relaxed, ”he says.
#raveparty “A 22-year-old guy with no record faces ten years in prison for making people dance on New Year’s Eve. This is delirium! And it is very serious ”. The party-goers get annoyed with the treatment they get after the party in #Lieuronhttps://t.co/AWVLXxJfne
– Camille Allain (@CamiAllain) January 6, 2021
His lawyer Marianne Rostan is surprised as well as we put “a lot of resources”, including two investigating judges, for a rave party “while other cases deserve more”, in reference to the Steve case.
Contacted, the Rennes prosecutor Philippe Astruc emphasizes that “three independent judges” have “validated the analysis of the prosecution as regards both the indictments and the placement in pre-trial detention”. “No appeal of these decisions has taken place for the time being,” he further argues. The lawyer for the young man in pre-trial detention will soon be applying for release.
The “interstellar void” of the file
Romain, 25, is one of the other men indicted in this case. He admitted to helping the organizers on the night of the party. “He was able to lend a hand to park cars in the parking lot,” admits his lawyer Me Paul Sichan. But these “elements of self-incrimination whose scope is completely truncated” are “symptomatic of the interstellar void” of the file, he said.
In the free parties, the border is often “porous between the public and the organizers”, says a source close to these circles. “From the moment you have a skill, we will let you do it”.
