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CRIME

France opens manslaughter probe into holiday home blaze

French prosecutors said on Friday they had opened a manslaughter investigation into the death of 11 people in a fire in a holiday home which failed to meet safety standards.

France opens manslaughter probe into holiday home blaze
French gendarmes and forensics work on Thursday at the holiday home for disabled people in eastern France that caught fire (Photo by Sebastien BOZON / AFP)

Wednesday’s fire, near Colmar in eastern France, was the deadliest such disaster in the country since a blaze in a bar in the northern city of Rouen in 2016 killed 14 people.

The home was unlicenced and flouting fire security standards required for hosting guests, according to local officials.

Friday’s statement said that the case had been taken over by Paris prosecutors who were investigating for “involuntary manslaughter and grievous bodily harm”.

The property was hosting a group of adults with learning disabilities and their companions at the peak of the French summer holiday season in the picturesque area.

The guests on the lower floor of the timbered residence all managed to escape alive, but those on the upper floor found themselves trapped.

The probe announced Friday is to “determine the precise causes of the fire, and any criminal liability”, the statement said.

President Emmanuel Macron called the deaths a “tragedy” this week, while Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne vowed that “all light” would be shed on what she described as an “appalling” disaster.

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CRIME

French cinema boss on trial for sexual assault

The head of France's top cinema institution Dominique Boutonnat denied sexually assaulting his godson as he went on trial Friday in a case that has led to calls for him to step down.

French cinema boss on trial for sexual assault

The trial comes as French cinema reels from a renewed #MeToo reckoning that has seen several big names, including acting legend Gerard Depardieu, accused of sexual abuse.

READ ALSO: French actor Gérard Depardieu to be tried for sexual assault in October

Activists have denounced Boutonnat’s continued leadership of the National Centre of Cinema (CNC), whose role includes overseeing measures to curb sexual violence in the industry.

His godson accuses him of trying to masturbate him during a holiday in Greece in 2020 when he was 19.

“I looked at him to find my godfather and that’s when I saw someone completely different… It was someone using me to masturbate,” the godson, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the court.

Boutonnat responded in court that it was his godson who had initiated the situation and kissed him.

“I feel bad about leaving an ambiguous situation, but to say there was a sexual assault is false,” he told the court.

He was placed under investigation in February 2021 but still reappointed by the government as head of the CNC in July 2022.

Training to prevent abuse has in recent months become obligatory for films seeking public funding via the CNC.

The CNC told AFP that the case against Boutonnat came from “the private sphere” and had no relation to its activities.

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