The new season of Koh-Lanta, expected on February 22, has not started that it is already controversial. François Descamp, firefighter and candidate for this 2022 vintage, was indicted for manslaughter after the death of a teammate in 2016 during an intervention on a fire. As head of training, he is suspected of having “gave the troop inappropriate, sometimes contradictory orders, and provided insufficient training and obsolete equipment“leading to the tragic death of a companion.
The details multiplied during the day, forcing the candidate’s lawyer, Me Ludovic Para, to intervene on the set of Do not touch My TV. Invited by Cyril Hanouna, the lawyer wanted to make things clear. It is not because his client is indicted in this tragic death that he is necessarily guilty: “To be indicted is to be presumed innocent. There is a media court that tries to replace justice and the problem with this court is that it has no rule, especially that of the presumption of innocence. He doesn’t know her.“
Ludovic Para also made it clear that this indictment was a formality since “on the places where he gave bad instructions and on the places where he did not provide the right equipment, he was not there“. If he is the subject of an indictment, it is because “the whole chain, from senior officers to those responsible for equipment, training and operations on the day of the accident, is concerned“. Another detail that the lawyer specifies is that his client was certainly responsible for the training on the day the fire broke out, but not when the victims followed him: “The four victims received their training before 2012. That is to say that he is indicted in his capacity as responsible for the training while it is not under his aegis that the training was given“.
For many columnists present around the table, François Descamp should be cut to the editing before the start of the broadcast of the next season. An idea rejected by the lawyer, once again because of the presumption of innocence. The production itself also takes it into account: “We were not informed of this indictment. The information concerning him was not public and it is covered by the secrecy of the instruction. We have followed our selection processes which are regulated by law in order to respect the privacy of competitors. We ask applicants if there are any court convictions. François told us that he was not the subject of any conviction and sent us an extract from his criminal record. His indictment does not call into question these elements since he is at this stage of the procedure legally presumed innocent.”
