Published
LausanneThe police intervene 17 times in two months because he imposes himself on his ex
A 50-year-old Romanian multiplied home invasions between April and June by repeating the intrusions at his ex-friend’s house. He was sentenced.
Some men, once they enter your life, it is very difficult to get rid of them. This is the case of Vlad*, a Romanian in his fifties who annoyed, threatened and abused his ex-friend Irena*. Last April, Vlad first made a name for himself by jamming the lock on the woman’s apartment door and snatching Irena’s name from the doorbell. Two weeks later, he pounded on the door until it was damaged while shouting a stormy “Putana di merda”. At the beginning of June, he repeated the same circus at the one he called, once once more, “Putana di merda” but which he seemed to be unable to do without. This is where a neighbor came in. It took him badly. Vlad pushed her towards the glass door of the elevator. The hand of the unfortunate crossed the glass. This caused a 4 cm wound and four days off work. The neighbor, the management and the ex-friend filed a complaint.
Between April 17 and June 16, the Lausanne police intervened 17 times because of Vlad’s home violations.
“She was the one who asked me to come”
According to the defendant, however, it was his ex-girlfriend who asked him to go incognito so that the neighbors did not see him. But his denials regarding the violence exerted on the neighbor made him lose all credibility. For all of his work, the 50-year-old was sentenced by penal order to 150 days in prison, a 300-franc fine, and a 30-day fine of 30 francs. The procedural costs of 975 francs were charged to the Romanian without a residence permit.
A matter of balance of interests
“Obsessively harassing is not a criminal offence. It is the constituent acts of “stalking” that are. And that’s the problem. Taken in isolation, facts can be of relative gravity whereas the whole constitutes serious acts”, analyzes Me Maelle Courtet-Willemin. But according to the Jura lawyer and mediator, in the event of repetition, justice can pronounce measures of removal. Violation of this prohibition may lead to pre-trial detention. “Preventive detention is limited in time. There is also a balance of interests to be struck between security and freedom. For there to be a coercive measure of constraint like prison, there must be an imminent and real danger”, nuances a law professor at the Unil. “Making stalking a criminal offense deserves, in my opinion, to be debated for better protection of victims,” added Me Maelle Courtet-Willemin.
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(apn)
