Serge Bromberg on trial for manslaughter

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Richard M Roberts
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Serge Bromberg on trial for manslaughter

Postby Richard M Roberts » Tue Nov 22, 2022 2:18 am


Richard M Roberts
Godfather
Posts: 2895
Joined: Sun May 31, 2009 6:30 pm

Re: Serge Bromberg on trial for manslaughter

Postby Richard M Roberts » Wed Jan 25, 2023 12:32 am

Serge Bromberg was sentenced today:

The Créteil Criminal Court on Tuesday sentenced the famous collector and restorer of old films Serge Bromberg to five years in prison, four of which were suspended, for the fatal fire in a building caused by his old highly flammable film reels in 2020.

This one-year prison sentence will be arranged in the form of house arrest under electronic surveillance, the court said.

For many years, Serge Bromberg had stored, without authorization, old nitrate film reels in a room under an inhabited eight-storey building in Vincennes, in the Val-de-Marne.

These coils, which absolutely must be kept cool, caught fire on the night of August 10, 2020, in the midst of a heat wave, when the air conditioning was not activated in the room.

Although many residents were on vacation at the time, the disaster killed two people. The first, trapped by the flames, had thrown himself from the fourth floor. The other victim had been burned alive.

During the two days of hearing, Serge Bromberg had fully acknowledged his responsibility in this terrible fire.

He was found guilty of manslaughter, involuntary injury, endangerment of others and involuntary destruction of property by fire.

The sentence to which he was sentenced is more severe than the requisitions of the public prosecutor, who had asked in November for four years in prison, three of which were suspended.

Serge Bromberg's Lobster Films company was fined 150,000 euros, in accordance with the prosecution's requisitions.

Having come in large numbers to attend the deliberations, the civil parties expressed their regret at not seeing the condemned prisoner. "For victims, it will never be acceptable to see that someone who killed their loved one will never go to detention. It would be important for Mr. Bromberg to withdraw from public life", reacted the lawyer of the family of one of the deceased, Me Elsa Crozatier.

"We are thinking about whether to appeal or not, these are not decisions that we take with a punch", reacted for his part Serge Bromberg's lawyer, Me Emmanuel Mercinier. "This decision, which is far from lenient, is visibly unbearable for the civil parties", he also declared, adding: "When Mr. Bromberg leaves the court, he does not only think of himself, he thinks of the victims".


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