Death of Françoise Rudetzki, lawyer and tireless spokesperson for victims of attacks

seriously injured during the Grand Véfour attack in 1983, she had created SOS attacks, the first French association for the defense of the victims of act of terrorism.

Le Monde With AFP

Françoise Rudetzki, seriously injured during the Grand Véfour attack in 1983 and since tireless spokesperson for the victims of terrorism, died on the night of Tuesday May 18 in Paris, at the age of 73 years, learned the agency France-Presse (AFP), Wednesday, from its family. “Until the end, she will have campaigned for the recognition and management of victims of attacks,” said her daughter, Deborah Rudetzki.

lawyer, Françoise Rudetzki had created SOS attacks, the first French association for the defense of victims of act of terrorism, in December 1985, a date which marked the start in Paris of a wave of deadly attacks linked to the conflict to the nearby -Orient.

From 1986, she had obtained the creation of the guarantee fund for victims of terrorism acts, funded by a small levy on each property insurance contract, a guarantee extended in 1990 to all the victims of Criminal offenses (rapes, assaults, robberies). “Until her death”, Françoise Rudetzki remained “member of the board of directors” of the fund, according to her family.

decorated with the National Order of Merit

On December 23, 1983, then aged 35, Françoise Rudetzki had been the victim of a bomb attack at Le Grand Véfour restaurant, under the Arcades of the Palais-Royal, in Paris, where she celebrated her ten years of Marriage to her husband. The explosion had projected a metal door which had crushed the legs of the young business woman.

“At that time, we never talked about victims,” ​​she said later to AFP. “The word” victim “was a bit like a word that should not be pronounced and only doctors took care of the victims,” ​​she said.

Subsequently, the judicial columnists will have met her countless times in the audiences and in the corridors of the Paris courthouse, where she moved using English Cannes, she who, after the attack , had undergone dozens of operations.

“Françoise Rudetzki has always wanted to fight for the dignity, for the recognition of the rights” of the victims and “she never let go”, said President François Hollande in 2016 at the Elysée, before decorating her the national order of merit.

She had succeeded in having the victims of terrorism recognized the status of civil war victims and the possibility for associations to carry civil parties during the trials.

His funeral will take place in the strictest family intimacy, announced his relatives.

/Media reports.