MORICE v. FRANCE JUDGMENT 45 157. It thus remains to be examined whether the “factual basis” for those value judgments was sufficient. 158. The Court is of the opinion that this condition was fulfilled in the present case. After the case had been withdrawn from Judges M. and L.L. by the Indictments Division of the Paris Court of Appeal (see paragraph 23 above), it became apparent that an important item of evidence in the file, namely a video-cassette recorded during a visit by the judges, accompanied by experts, to the scene of the death, even though it had been referred to in the last decision given by those judges, had not been forwarded with the investigation file to the judge appointed to replace them. That fact was not only established but it was also sufficiently serious to justify the drafting by Judge P. of a report in which he recorded the following: firstly, the videocassette did not appear in the investigation file and was not registered as an exhibit; and secondly, it had been given to him in an envelope, which showed no sign of having been placed under seal, bearing the name of Judge M. as addressee and also containing a handwritten card with the letter head of the public prosecutor of Djibouti, written by him and addressed to Judge M. (see paragraph 32 above). 159. Moreover, in addition to the fact that the card showed a certain friendliness on the part of the public prosecutor of Djibouti towards Judge M. (see paragraph 32 above), it accused the civil parties’ lawyers of “orchestrating their manipulation”. The Court would emphasise in this connection that, not only have the Djibouti authorities supported the theory of suicide from the outset, but also a number of representatives of that State have been personally implicated in the context of the judicial investigation conducted in France, as can be seen in particular from the judgment of the International Court of Justice (see paragraphs 63-64 above) and from the proceedings brought on a charge of procuring of false evidence (see paragraph 18 above). 160. Lastly, it has been established that the applicant acted in his capacity as a lawyer in two high-profile cases in which Judge M. was an investigating judge. In both of them the applicant succeeded in obtaining findings by the appellate courts that there had been shortcomings in the proceedings, leading to the withdrawal of the cases from Judge M. (see paragraphs 22-23 and 26 above). In the context of the first case, known as the “Scientology” case, the applicant additionally secured a ruling that the French State was liable for the malfunctioning of the justice system (see paragraph 30 above). 161. It further considers that the expressions used by the applicant had a sufficiently close connection with the facts of the case, in addition to the fact that his remarks could not be regarded as misleading or as a gratuitous attack (see paragraph 139 above). It reiterates in this connection that freedom of expression “is applicable not only to ‘information’ or ‘ideas’ that are favourably received or regarded as inoffensive or as a matter of