It’s a new element in the soap opera of the Champions League final fiasco. During his hearing before the Senate to explain the incidents on the sidelines of the Real Madrid – Liverpool match on Saturday May 28, Erwan Le Prévost, director of institutional relations for the French Football Federation (FFF) declared that the CCTV footage from the Stade de France had been destroyed. In question: the absence of judicial requisition. These pictures are “automatically destroyed“After seven days, unless requisitioned by justice, explained Erwan Le Prévost.
Contacted by franceinfo, the Bobigny prosecutor’s office indicates that it has not yet received any complaints concerning this violence at the Stade de France. While the Liverpool club says it has collected thousands of testimonies from supporters attacked or robbed, the Bobigny prosecutor has not yet registered any complaints concerning the violence committed on May 28. And without a judicial investigation, explains a judicial source, no requisitions of videos of the few 220 cameras available to the Stade de France consortium .
The complaints process has indeed experienced failures: a few French police officers arrived in Liverpool last Sunday to collect complaints from English supporters, but the online pre-complaints system has only been open since Monday.
“Do not confuse images of the police and images of a private operator“, writes the Paris police headquarters on Twitter this Thursday evening, in a clarification. The authorities have thus specified that there are indeed images of the video protection plan, but property of the police headquarters. These are “in his possession” and “are obviously always at the disposal of justice, within the framework of requisitions drawn up in a criminal investigation“.
#Stade de France | The images in the possession of the @prefpolice are obviously always at the disposal of justice, within the framework of requisitions drawn up in a criminal investigation. Do not confuse images of the police with images of a private operator. pic.twitter.com/FFeZmRZ2FZ
— Prefecture of Police (@prefpolice) June 9, 2022
The director of institutional relations of the FFF, who was “present at PC security“on the evening of the events, insisted on having been able to watch “extremely violent images“According to our information, we can mainly see fights between supporters and stewards, at the immediate entrance to the Stade de France, at the turnstiles and at the lockers.
>> Incidents at the Stade de France: we examined the arguments of the authorities to explain the fiasco of the Champions League final
A key question remains: why if these images, which had a potential interest for even slow justice, not have them isolated and preserved? A source close to the Stade de France explains to franceinfo that the Stade de France servers also do not have the capacity to store the images for more than seven days. “The images crash on their own within the time limit that is set by law. If the public prosecutor does not make a requisition, obviously they disappear“, also confirmed Senator LR François Noël Buffet, chairman of the Senate law commission.
Guest of franceinfo, Friday morning, Gabriel Attal, Minister of Action and Public Accounts and former government spokesperson, indicated that “Ihe Ministry of Justice will soon communicate“, without further details.
Removal of Stade de France images ➡️ “I am no longer a government spokesperson”, begins by saying Gabriel Attal. “The Ministry of Justice will communicate soon”, which does not “believe at all” that we are heading towards a departure of Didier Lallement. pic.twitter.com/0WsnK09NvT
— franceinfo (@franceinfo) June 10, 2022
For its part, the National Commission for Computing and Liberties (Cnil) specifies that the maximum period for storing video surveillance images is one month. “The retention period for images from a camera filming the public highway or a place open to the public must be proportionate and correspond to the purpose for which the video protection system is installed. This period should not exceed one month.“, specifies the Cnil on its site.