16
LETELLIER v. FRANCE JUDGMENT
and 5 December 1986 (see paragraphs 13 and 23 above) regarded detention
on remand as the sole means of countering it.
After 23 December 1986 in any event (see paragraph 23 above), the
continued detention was therefore no longer justified under this head.
2. The danger of absconding
40. The various decisions of the Paris indictments division (see
paragraphs 13, 16, 18 and 23 above) were based on the fear of the
applicant’s evading trial because of "the severity of the sentence to which
she was liable at law" and on the need to ensure that she remained at the
disposal of the judicial authorities.
41. The Commission observed that during the four weeks for which she
had been released - from 24 December 1985 to 22 January 1986 - the
applicant had complied with the obligations of court supervision and had
not sought to abscond. To do so would, moreover, have been difficult for
her, as the mother of minor children and the manager of a business
representing her sole source of income. As the danger of absconding had not
been apparent from the outset, the decisions given had contained inadequate
statements of reasons in so far as they had mentioned no circumstance
capable of establishing it.
42. The Government considered that there was indeed a danger of the
accused’s absconding. They referred to the severity of the sentence which
Mrs Letellier risked and the evidence against her. They also put forward
additional considerations which were not however invoked in the judicial
decisions in question.
43. The Court points out that such a danger cannot be gauged solely on
the basis of the severity of the sentence risked. It must be assessed with
reference to a number of other relevant factors which may either confirm the
existence of a danger of absconding or make it appear so slight that it cannot
justify detention pending trial (see, mutatis mutandis, the Neumeister
judgment cited above, Series A no. 8, p. 39, § 10). In this case the decisions
of the indictments divisions do not give the reasons why, notwithstanding
the arguments put forward by the applicant in support of her applications for
release, they considered the risk of her absconding to be decisive (see
paragraphs 14, 19 and 24 above).
3. The inadequacy of court supervision
44. According to the applicant, court supervision would have made it
possible to attain the objectives pursued. Furthermore, she had been under
such supervision without any problems arising for nearly one month, from
24 December 1985 to 22 January 1986 (see paragraphs 12-13 above), and
had declared her readiness to accept it on each occasion that she sought her
release (see paragraphs 14, 19 and 24 above).