[The lead editorial in the July 13 issue of Rouge dealt with Marcellin's attempt to interject his views into the court's deliberations on the motion for Krivine's provisional release. Below is an Intercontinental Press translation of the article.]
…*
On Wednesday [July 10] Judge Alain Bernard had ruled favorably on a motion to provisionally release Alain
Krivine. It seems that the regime, and more specifically the minister of the interior, took this as a rebuff. In fact, the prosecutor immediately appealed; the chambre d'accusation will have to rule on the matter within one month.
Actually, if the judge decided to free Krivine, it was because his detention did not appear to the judge to be necessary for continuing the inquiry. The judge's decision went some way toward placing some limitations on preventive detention.
Under these conditions, the prosecutor's appeal takes on a political rather than juridical significance. The offensive launched by Marcellin has run aground; his manipulations on June 21 have become known to all; the dissolution of the Ligue Communiste has triggered a broad current of protest.
Marcellin feels himself denied a victory. If Krivine is freed, if Krivine's image as a dangerous rioter is washed away, then Marcellin's balance sheet would be a meager one indeed — a big attack for almost nothing.
Behind the prosecutor's appeal, which keeps Krivine in prison temporarily, lurks ministerial rage.
In fact, Marcellin could not wait about the real question: Was the holding of a racist and fascist meeting in Paris on June 21 tolerable? Gérard Monate [head of the largest police union] now acknowledges that this meeting was "surely not" legal. As to Marcellin, even he gave himself away when, in the same France-Soir interview, he explained that the difference between the June 21 Ordre Nouveau meeting and the neofascist meeting that was banned on February 26, 1970, was that the former had been authorized because it did not have the same character, since it only "dealt with immigration."
So the scandal of Krivine's detention is breaking out. But we must not forget about the equally gross scandal of Pierre Rousset's detention.
Pierre Rousset is in prison for having been found in a headquarters in which there were two firearms. Thirty persons were arrested along with him in the same headquarters; no relation has been established between Rousset and these arms. Rousset is therefore being held as a hostage, no more, no less.
These arbitrary detentions must end!
Immediate freedom for Krivine and Rousset!