L'Invraisemblable Affaire du RER D
Vassili Silovic
2005 - 47 min - DV Cam - Couleur - France

This case story is rather unique in French judicial and political memory. On Friday 9th July 2004, a young woman claims to have been the victim of an antisemite attack on the “RER D” line of a local train in the suburbs of Paris. The next day, the media got carried away and the story was splashed all over the front pages. Yet, the event had been entirely invented...
More than a year later, our investigation reveals that the Home Secretary of the time, Dominique de Villepin, and President Jacques Chirac were responsible for this extraordinary public outcry. On Saturday night, 10th July 2004, when the media had not yet latched on to the story, they deliberately chose to comment publicly on the events even though the legal veracity had not been substantiated. They had launched what became known as "The RER D Affair".
Our investigation reveals that on Saturday 10th July 2004, a serious error had been committed at the highest level of the state.