The Rwandan 39-year-old is accused of “destruction and damage by fire”. His counsel, mr. Chabert, said that his client was “relieved”, “scared” and “overwhelmed”.
A week after the fire in the cathedral of Nantes, a volunteer of the diocese went to confession and was placed in custody in the night from Saturday to Sunday to “destruction and damage by fire”. This man, a rwandan national, 39 years of age, is “relieved”, “scared” and “overwhelmed”, said Sunday his lawyer Quentin Chabert journalists. “There’s a kind of relief, this is someone who is scared, it is in some way overwhelmed”, said ms. Chabert to the press.
The”man “was recognized, during the examination of the first appearance before the investigating judge, have turned on the three lights in the cathedral : on the great organ, the small organ, and in an electrical panel,” said the prosecutor of the Republic of Nantes Pierre Sennès daily. This man, 39-year-old, who was responsible for closing the cathedral on the eve of the fire, was indicted “heads of destruction and damage by fire and placed in provisional detention by the judge of freedoms and detention”, said in a press release the attorney.
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The rector of the cathedral of Nantes, father Hubert Champagne, had explained last week that the volunteer was a “Rwandan”, came to take refuge in France a few years ago”. According to the rector, the volunteer is “an altar boy” and he knew “for the past four or five years”. “I have confidence in him as in all the employees,” he explained to AFP. The volunteer had been placed in police custody on July 18, a few hours after the fire and the initiation of the investigation, and then released the next evening. The investigators wanted to interrogate him because after the fire no trace of the burglar had been found on the access to the building in which three starting points of fire were found.
In the framework of this investigation, “more than thirty persons” were heard and a score of investigators from the judicial police have been mobilized, notably with the reinforcement of the central laboratory of the prefecture of police of Paris, in order to determine the cause of the fire, according to the prosecutor. The volunteer was again arrested and placed in police custody Saturday morning, and then presented in the evening to the public prosecutor of Nantes, who opened a criminal investigation, before being charged and remanded in custody.
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He shall be punished for this offence a sentence of 10 years imprisonment and 150 000 euros fine,” said Peter Sennés in an e-mail sent in the night.
“Three points of fire”
The investigation had revealed the existence of three points of fire separate in the cathedral of Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul. “Between the great organ, which is on the façade at the first floor and the other lights, you have almost the entire distance of the cathedral. They are still at a distance consistent with each other”, had raised the day of the fire the attorney.
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The warning had been given on July 18, around 7: 45 a.m. by passers-by who saw flames coming out of the cathedral. It took about two hours for firefighters to contain the fire which has destroyed a painting of Hippolyte Flandrin of the Nineteenth century and the great organ. Outside of the grand organ, “very few, or no items will be sauvables”, according to Philippe Charron, head of the heritage to the DRAC (regional Direction of cultural affairs), “most of the works have been saved” and are put “in particular in the castle of Nantes”.
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Fire in the cathedral of Nantes
Fire of the cathedral of Nantes : the shadow areas in the survey Three questions on the reconstruction of the cathedral of Nantes Cathedral Nantes : “The State will support the restoration,”
“We’re going to count in weeks the security of the site, (…) in months the investigation, which is going to be done stone by stone” and, for the duration of the reconstruction work preceded by a study phase, “there, the unit will instead be the year,” said Mr. Charron. The State “will take part” in the reconstruction, promised by the Prime minister, Jean Castex, came to Nantes to congratulate the firefighters on the day of the fire.
