Seventy-five euros in compensation per day of wrongful imprisonment: that’s what, on average, our judicial system awards to the unfortunate souls it has unjustly crushed. Unless, of course, your name is Bernard Tapie or you were acquitted in the Outreau case. His story has never been told. Yet, it gives pause for thought. On July 3, 2002, based solely on the testimony of a woman who believes she recognized him, Richard Laurent was accused of rape, arrested at his home, and brutally thrown in prison. “I didn’t understand what was happening to me; it was a nightmare,” confides the 57-year-old railway worker, married and father of three. A few months later, still incarcerated, he saw a prisoner accused of pedophilia arrive in his cell, who also proclaimed his innocence. “Like mine, his investigating judge had condemned him in advance, without giving him a chance to explain himself,” he recalls.

Karine Duchochois:
0 days in prison,
€150,000 in compensation.
This mother, who became a journalist at France Info, is the only one of the thirteen acquitted in the Outreau case not to have gone to prison. The Ministry of Justice nevertheless granted her a substantial compensation. Some of the defendants in this disastrous trial reportedly received €1 million.

André Kaas:
3 years in prison
, €103,000 in compensation.
Three years in prison, three children aged 21, 14, and 12 left to fend for themselves, his company liquidated, millions of euros in losses… Wrongfully accused of murdering his wife in 1992, this property developer paid a heavy price to the justice system. But it awarded him a pittance, five times less than what the prosecution had requested!

Roland Agret,
7 years in prison,
€500,000 in compensation.
A severed finger, swallowed forks… Convicted of murder, he captivated the media until his acquittal in 1984. Furious at receiving only €40,000 in compensation, he then shot himself in the foot. The next day, the minister agreed to round up the sum, presumably to €500,000.