The deputy of France Insoumise appeared in a “guilty plea” procedure this Tuesday, December 13, 2022. He accepted the sentence proposed by the public prosecutor: 4 months in prison suspended.
[Mis à jour le 13 décembre 2022 à 10h57] Deputy La France Insoumise Adrien Quatennens was given a 4-month suspended prison sentence for violence. The elected official was tried on Tuesday, December 13, in appearance on prior admission of guilt: the prosecution summoned him thus at 8:30 a.m., to ask him if he still recognized the facts and to offer him a sentence: suspended prison so.
Adrien Quatennens had already made it known that he admitted to having slapped his wife and that he had multiplied the messages by telephone, in an approach which is similar in his description to acts of harassment. The respondent has accepted the sanction proposed by the Public Prosecutor of Lille, for “violence on a spouse, having not resulted in any ITT” as well as for “regular and malicious sending of messages” by SMS and WhatsApp, between August and September 2022.
The deputy from the North was also ordered to pay 2,000 euros in damages to his wife, Céline Quatennens, who had filed a complaint against him.
A harsher sentence than expected
According to the continuous news channel BFMTV, Adrien Quatennens “appeared tired and thin, swimming in his coat” at the hearing. The sentence was approved this morning by a judge. AFP, which relies on the entourage of the respondent, indicated this Tuesday morning that the sentence most likely proposed by the prosecution would be “a fine” or “an awareness course” on domestic violence. The maximum penalties provided for sexual violence are much more severe: the deputy could face up to two years in prison, depending on how the facts are qualified by the courts. The public prosecutor, to set a sentence, heard several witnesses, relatives of the couple currently in the process of divorce.
Me Jade Dousselin, his lawyer, told AFP insisted that the deputy was sentenced for facts dating back “more than a year” in a context of “mutual aggression”. Céline Quatennens had denounced “physical and psychological violence” exerted for “several years” in a press release.
If Adrien Quatennens had refused the proposed sentence, then he would have been sent back to the Lille Criminal Court in March 2023, for a public hearing, which would have exposed him much more to the media.