Pascal Mazurier wants expedition of trial

Pascal Mazurier, the French consulate official who is facing the charge of raping his daughter, pleaded that the trial of his case be expedited.

At a press conference held on the eve of Fathers’ Day, said the case should end quickly, before his children forget him.

Pascal was arrested after the rape charge was levelled against him by his wife of Indian origin. He was released after the high court granted him bail. Presently, he is facing a criminal case in which the police have submitted the charge-sheet and the trial is yet to commence. Another case is filed against him in the family court by his wife, asking the court to restrain him from visiting his children.

“In view of the rights of my children and my mother, they should be allowed to meet in a secured atmosphere. Let my children know that I am not dead,” an emotionally charged Pascal remarked.

“All of a sudden, I was taken out of the lives of my children without giving a chance to explain why. This by itself is traumatic,” he said.

Clemence Witt, the counsel for Pascal, stressed that India has signed the United Nation’s convention on child rights, according to which Pascal must be allowed to meet his children.

Pierre Olivier Sur, the elected president of the Paris Bar Association, denounced the situation that Pascal is facing as a father and urged for the restoration of the link between him and his children immediately. 

“I did not come here to plead. Pascal’s Indian lawyers will do it better than me,” he underlined. “I also call for the respect of the link between a father and his children, a link that is far superior to the course of legal proceedings,” he said.

Kumar Jagirdar, president of Children’s Rights Initiative for Shared Parenting, an NGO,  said Pascal’s wife was out to seek vengeance against her husband and that she wanted to cut off her children’s relationship with their father permanently.