Nice attack: why identifying victims took time – Europe1

The time required for the identification of victims is a “long time” and “cruel”, admitted the Secretary of State for victim assistance, Juliette Méadel, during a trip to Nice last Saturday. The 84 deceased victims have been formally identified (the prognosis of 19 others committed), announced the Paris prosecutor on Tuesday. But why it took five days to have the identity of all the victims? Europe 1 explains the process.

Analyze, compare . For the victims of attacks, the Paris prosecutor competent in cases of terrorism, which is responsible for the identification of victims and to issue burial permits. His role: “to establish with certainty the identity of the deceased,” said a statement from the Attorney General of the Republic, published the day after the attack in Nice

Under its authority in the capital. Riviera, a committee meets daily to review progress on the identifications. Composed of representatives including prosecutors, investigators and forensic experts, it must fulfill two missions: to identify the bodies and discover the “causes and circumstances” of death, to advance the investigation and ensure that it is indeed a body from the scene of the attack. Both missions must be completed before the issuance of burial permits families.

jewelery, wallets, clothing, human remains … Every day, the Committee therefore analyzes in detail the body. It must compare these elements with those transmitted by families and friends or by the Ministries of Foreign of the deceased’s country of origin Affairs footprints of family, identity documents, or even medical records of DNA of the victim, taken from the toothbrush or the workplace for example. The large number of nationalities involved, the absence of lists of the persons on the Promenade des Anglais on July 14 and degradation of body and why the “time is long.” Especially since all the victims were not necessarily any ID on them.

Avoiding errors. For some, however, the procedure could be accelerated. “I spoke several times with Francois Molins, the public prosecutor of Paris, to ask him to speed information from victims’ families, who are waiting for news of their missing relatives and are held in unbearable suspense” , said on Saturday the deputy RS and the Alpes-Maritimes department chair Eric Ciotti. “The identification of the deceased victims, whether visual or DNA sample, must now be a priority of the investigation,” he had said in a statement.

“This is a scientific process “in which” the slightest mistake is tragic. It takes time for the truth. Only the judiciary is the guarantor of the truth, “retorted Juliette Méadel. As recalled Nice Matin, in November, after the attacks in Paris, a couple had stayed for four days with a body that was not that of their daughter before we teach them that it was in another service. Everything is done according to the Secretary of State for this type of error does not happen again.