A French miscarriage of justice - as yet "unproven"

For the time being Loïc Sécher will remain behind bars.

That was the decision of a commission of judges (la commission de révision des condamnations pénales) on Monday, which decided that more evidence was required before he could be released.

It said that "additional information was needed" and at the moment it didn't have all the elements that would justify suspending Sécher's sentence or setting him free.

In other words he's not as he, his lawyers and even the legal team of his "victim" had hoped, being released and his original conviction hasn't yet been overturned.

Instead the wheels of French justice are moving just as slowly as ever in reaching a decision that many - barring the system itself - seem to think is the right and just one.

Sécher has been in prison since December 2003, serving a 16-year sentence for a crime he claimed he never committed and one which the alleged victim said earlier this year never occurred in the first place.

To recap the previous story that appeared here, Sécher was found guilty of raping a 13-year-old girl in the 2000 in the village of La Chapelle-Saint-Sauveur in Loire-Atlantique in western France.

His accuser - now 22 years old - came forward in April this year, and in a letter to France's chief prosecutor, retracted her original claims that he had raped her. Sécher, she wrote, had not raped her, and her conscience no longer allowed her to live with the knowledge that an innocent man was sitting in prison.

French law allows Sécher's legal team to resubmit a request for the sentence to be overturned, which is exactly what one of his lawyers, Yann Choucq, intends to do.

"Asking for his (Sécher's) release on the current evidence doesn't appear to be unreasonable in my opinion," he said. "I still hope that he'll be freed soon and his honor restored."

That's also a hope echoed by Cécile de Oliveira, the lawyer for the 22-year-old woman. De Oliveira said that the commission's latest decision was also a blow for her client, and told reporters that as far as she was concerned, the retraction should have been enough to ensure Sécher's release."

"My client has clearly expressed her wish that Sécher be released from prison, and I think that's entirely compatible with further investigations," she said.

"She will also suffer from this latest decision and was shocked and had been expecting a decision that would lead to his release."

Sécher's committee of support, which numbers 150 people, was also disappointed by Monday's decision, and is still hoping that this latest decision will be reviewed, especially in the light of last week's release of Marc Machin, falsely imprisoned in 2004 for a murder he didn't commit.

"Justice takes its time and is very careful (in overturning a judgment)," said Jean-Pierre Chesné, one of the committee members.

"We wish that it had shown the same caution before accusing and sentencing Sécher in the first place."