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(Rennes) A week after the fire in the Nantes cathedral, the criminal track is now privileged and a volunteer from the diocese, a time arrested then released, was presented before a judge on Saturday evening as part of an open judicial investigation for arson.
France Media Agency
This man from 28 years, a Rwandan who arrived in France several years ago, was responsible for close the cathedral the day before the disaster. He was taken into custody a few hours after the opening of the investigation on 17 July, then released the following evening.
The investigators wanted to question him, because after the fire no sign of break-in had been found on the accesses to the building in which three starting points of fire had been noted.
As part of this investigation, "more than thirty people" were heard and about twenty investigators from the judicial police were mobilized to determine the cause of the fire.
"The first results communicated by the central laboratory of the Prefecture of police of Paris lead to privilege the criminal track", announced Saturday evening in a press release the public prosecutor of Nantes Pierre Sennès.
"The developments of the investigation, subsequent to this first phase, led to the arrest" again on Saturday of the volunteer, at 6 am 13 (0 h 13, HE), and to his placement in police custody.
It was presented on Saturday evening to the Nantes prosecutor's office which "opened a judicial investigation of the heads of degradation, deterioration or destruction of the property of others by fire and required the referral to the judge of freedoms and detention for the purpose of placing the person in pre-trial detention, "said the prosecutor.
The man incurs for this offense "a penalty of 07 years of imprisonment and 131 000 0 euros fine ", he added .
"Three points of fire"
The investigation revealed the existence of three distinct fire starting points in the Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul cathedral. "Between the great organ, which is on the facade on the first floor and the other lights, you have almost the entire distance to the cathedral. They are still at a substantial distance from each other, "the prosecutor noted on the day of the fire.
The alert was given on 17 July around 7 a.m. 41 (1 h 41, HE) by passers-by who had seen flames coming out of the building. It took the firefighters about two hours to contain the fire, which notably destroyed a 19th century painting by Hippolyte Flandrin and the great organ.
Apart from the great organ of which "very few, if at all elements" could be saved, according to Philippe Charron, the head of the heritage department at the Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs, "most of the works have been saved" and are stored "in particular in the Château de Nantes".
"We will count in weeks the security of the site, [...] in months the investigation which will be done stone by stone" and , concerning the duration of the reconstruction site preceded by a study phase, "there, the unit will rather be the year", estimated Mr. Charron.
The State "will take its full share" in the reconstruction, promised Prime Minister Jean Castex, went to Nantes to congratulate the firefighters on the day of tragedy.
The fire at Nantes cathedral, which occurred 13 months after that of Notre-Dame de Paris, aroused great emotion among the people of Nantes, some of whom have remembered a previous fire in the building, the 25 January 1972.
The construction of this cathedral, of flamboyant Gothic style, lasted several centuries (from 1434 at 1891).