Those Development followsGeneva justice
The Agapé festival defies the state and the city of Geneva to court
The organizers of the sacred art demonstration require authorities hundreds of thousands of francs.
The festival should have taken place in particular in the Frank-Martin hall.
Laurent Guiraud/Tamedia
- The Agapé festival requires compensation after the cancellation of the Geneva event.
- The authorities blocked the demonstration due to controversies linked to the participants.
- Lawyers denounce an arbitrary decision taken without prior consultation.
The Agape Festival Returns against the State and the City of Geneva and requires authorities hundreds of thousands of francs, learned the “Tribune de Genève”. This request translates in the form of two administrative appeals, several criminal complaints filed last month and a mood ticket on its site. She follows The cancellation of the demonstration which was to be held in the Frank-Martin hall from May 28 to June 1.
The termination of this rental contract by the Territory Department (DT) had been revealed by “TimeLast month.
“Relatives with sexual connotation”
According to the daily, the author of the author of a work praised the author of pedophilia and a musician condemned in France among the artists, at first instance despite his denials, for having made “sexual connotation imposed repeatedly in the context of a position of authority”.
In addition, an ex-priest dismissed from the clerical state by Pope Francis in 2022 “for serious reasons” would have been invested in the organization of the festival. His presence had already encouraged the Catholic Church to close its places of worship to the demonstration in 2023. This year, its involvement in the event, chaired by its sister, does not seem demonstrated in an obvious manner.
Why did the cantonal authorities decided to take the catch? “Considering that the alleged facts seem solid and admitted by our religious institutions, explains the Council of State for” time “, it is today impossible for the State to allow, with full knowledge of the facts, the holding of this festival in public buildings even though it was excluded from the walls of the Roman and Protestant Catholic churches in Geneva and this, for serious reasons.”
Accusations of sexual abuse
Evoking accusations of sexual abuse against one of his priors, the community of Saint-Jean brothers had announced in January 2023 the “possible” exclusion of this man who had officiated in Geneva between 1988 and 2008. In 2008, after complaints for touching two young women in the early 90s, the bishop of Lausanne, Geneva and Friborg noted the brother of her ministry and reported to the Geneva justice.
The criminal procedure led a few months later to a classification order for prescription of the facts. The public prosecutor had nevertheless written that the respondent had committed acts of abuse of distress on at least two people. “Haddenly,” said the prosecution.
The religious, shocked by this formulation, had Switzerland condemned in 2014 in Strasbourg for violation of the presumption of innocence. Indeed, the cantonal justice, then federal, had confirmed this classification “without disapproving the content of the order”. And the European Court of Human Rights to note at the time: “If the qualification of the alleged facts was necessary, nothing forced the Attorney General to establish its reality.”
Rediscovered since 2013 in the diocese of Saltillo in Mexico, the fallen prior was no longer authorized to carry the habit of the brothers of Saint-Jean, to listen to the confessions and to make spiritual accompaniment.
“Highly defamatory”
The festival website has published this post on its site.
DR
Son avocat, Me Thomas Barth, today believes that this whole affair is “highly defamatory” and seriously affects the reputation and honor of his client “who was definitively innocent by the ECHR”.
Moreover. Me Barth wishes to emphasize that the press article gives the floor to a woman claiming to have been the victim in 2008 of the religious when the case was definitively classified: “The facts for which my principal was dismissed are linked to a” canonical offense of solicitation in confession “, completely disputed, having no relation to this file, nor of course with sexual facts. Regarding these, my client has been laundered once and for all by the Swiss and European justice, and leaving doubt today is a monstrous gravity. ”
In addition, the lawyer also defends the artistic director of the festival who also filed a criminal complaint, considering herself splashed by the media impact of this controversy. “She too is seriously defamed, we will not let anything go by,” he concludes.
Festival defender, MeRomain Jordan resorted to the “arbitrary” decision of the Council of State and the City “which are based in particular that the Catholic and Protestant churches have refused to make their premises available to end any ambiguity. It is inconceivable that the operator of a room suddenly refuses to honor his commitment to make available […]the day before a festival. We would like to kill him that we would not have acted otherwise. ”
The lawyer deplores that this choice of the authorities was made “without any communication prior to the Agapé association, the latter could not be explained on anything, nor consult the file.”
“Your head does not come back to me”
As for the “serious reasons” invoked in the couriers of the city and the canton, “they are not explained in their decision, adds MeJordan. Nothing justified canceling the festival and thus cause damage to the members of the association and volunteers, patrons, artists and to the public. ”
According to the appeals, filed on June 26 before the administrative chamber, “none of the conditions for restricting freedom of meeting is given. This decision is not based on any legal basis, does not respond to any public interest, and is therefore not proportioned either. This act could be used to illustrate and define what can be an arbitrary state act today. Your head does not come back to me, so I exclude you, and without asking you your opinion. ”
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