a gendarme who had claimed to have been attacked and prosecuted for “denunciation of an imaginary offense”

The Toulouse public prosecutor’s office announced Thursday, November 18 that the gendarme who had claimed to have been attacked on the night of November 11 to 12 in the Villefranche-de-Lauragais gendarmerie barracks (Haute-Garonne) and who had fired with his service weapon is prosecuted for “denunciation of imaginary crime” and “degradation of public goods”, reports France Bleu Occitanie. The soldier is suspected of having invented everything.

Last week, this 54-year-old gendarme declared having been attacked with a knife within the premises of this gendarmerie, about thirty kilometers south of Toulouse. He then fired his service weapon twice, around 3 a.m. The firefighters intervened after securing the premises, while the gendarme had been transported to Purpan hospital in Toulouse.

A week later, and after an investigation, the research section of the Toulouse gendarmerie gathered elements questioning the victim’s statements, in particular during police custody, which started Thursday at 8:30 am. “These latest acts of investigation seem to establish that the alleged victim invented an assault that never took place”, writes the public prosecutor, Samuel Vuelta-Simon, in his press release.

The prosecution also announces that the soldier is being prosecuted for “denunciation of an imaginary offense” and “degradation of public property”. He risks six months and five years of imprisonment respectively, as well as a 7,500 euros and a 75,000 euros fine.

The gendarme was referred to the Toulouse public prosecutor’s office on Thursday with a request for placement under judicial supervision, including a ban on exercising his profession and holding or carrying a weapon, pending his future appearance in court. The parquet adds: “the psychological fragility of the soldier seems to be the cause of the facts”.