2006 – The “Mama Galedou” burnt bus case

It was an autumn evening. One of those first cool nights which, in Marseille, herald the true end of summer. On 28 October 2006, Cheb Mami had the Dock swaying for the Fiesta des Suds, a local marker of the changing season. Mama Galledou was not going dancing: the studious 26-year-old science student was quietly taking the bus home to Saint-Jérôme. For six years, the young woman of Senegalese origin had lived here, in a small flat on the Balustres estate (13th arrondissement). But that evening, Mama’s journey came to a halt on avenue Normandie-Niemen, when a group of young people blocked the doors of the bus and shouted at the passengers to get off. Then they set fire to the vehicle driven by Dany Fernandez. Just like that, out of recklessness and stupidity. To “do a bus and get on TV”, like the French suburbs that had gone up in flames in the autumn of 2005. But not Marseille, people had congratulated themselves at the time.

Mama did not have time to get off the burning bus. It may only have been the action of a neighbour from the Lilas estate, Djamel Ramdani, that saved her life. This man, who, like Dany Fernandez, would later receive the City medal for his heroism, wrapped the student in his jacket until the flames were out. With burns to 62% of her body, the young woman would have to undergo a great many operations and years of rehabilitation.

From the very first hours, her ordeal went beyond Marseille and beyond a mere news item to become a national affair. The context was already that of a presidential campaign, in which one candidate, Nicolas Sarkozy, then UMP Minister of the Interior, was setting the pace. Around the number 32 bus, he built his law-and-order argument and called for reform of the 1945 ordinance, imposing a specific regime for juvenile offenders that was tougher on repeat offenders — which most of the accused, kids from the neighbouring estates, were not. Contacted a few days ago, Nicolas Sarkozy, once again campaigning and in Marseille yesterday, declined to comment on the event. In politics, one news story drives out another. The burning of the number 32 bus was followed by a media firestorm. Local politicians used the tragedy to call for more police officers, while social workers tried to raise awareness of the abandonment of the estates.

In the tower blocks of Saint-Jérôme, people condemned the act and wondered how the unthinkable could have happened. Quickly arrested, on a tip-off from an informant who would himself meet a tragic end (in 2008, Lyes Gouasmia, the victim of a gangland killing, was found burnt in Vitrolles), eight young people were brought to trial. They were sentenced to between 3 and 9 years’ imprisonment, since served. Philippe Vouland defended one of them. The regrets expressed and the confession of the one who had thrown the burning handkerchief “made it possible to take a few steps towards the truth”. But “what remains of a criminal trial is a great void”, as Alain Molla, lawyer for the civil party, put it.

From this harrowing experience, Philippe Vouland and Alain Molla made a film, directed by Jean Danet: “Des deux côtés de la barre” (“On both sides of the bar”). They recount their experience as criminal lawyers and discuss technical and ethical questions in depth, whether acting for civil parties or for the defence.

Read the La Provence article on which this account is based (in French): Link to the article