Talk:Murder of Marina Sabatier

Article

1) This article is a translation from the French of the article "L'affaire Marina" (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affaire_Marina) on the French Wikipedia. I am the author of this translation and some English and French language sources have been added to those of the original and a summary of the pathologist's report on the death of Marina as well as a few other elements have been added. But otherwise the translation follows closely the original.

2) This affair is concerned with a dramatic case of child abuse which has raised important questions in France about the effectiveness of state institutions for the protection of children. This is all explained in the article. The affair was widely reported in the media and furthermore, the trial of the 2 parents of the little girl Marina was reported in the international press. For this reason, the interest of this affair is not confined to France and the original French article merits translation into other languages, notably English.

The first sentence of the English article states that this is a "judicial and administrative affair" but this is only an approximate rendering of the French original "une affaire judiciaire" which has a wider meaning than the English "judicial". It is not just a legal affair as it is the state institutions, such as social services, which are implicated. But to translate this as "an affair of state" would be overdoing it.

3) The translation of French legal terms into English has posed a particular problem partly because of differences between the French legal system and those of other countries but also because of my lack of sufficient knowledge of these differences.

For one amusing example "le parquet" in France has been rendered into English in the article as the "the public prosecutor" and also "the public prosecutor's office". In England the rough equivalent to "le parquet" I think would be "the Crown prosecution" but it would be ridiculous to translate "le parquet" as the "the Crown prosecution" because France is a Republic.

More serously, in the original article in the section on the trial of the parents is the sentence "Quatre des plus importantes associations de protection de l'enfance en France se sont portées parties civiles", that is to say in the trail of the parents four of the most important child protection associations in France "se sont portées parties civiles". This notion "se porter de partie civile" (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plainte_avec_constitution_de_partie_civile) is a procedure in French law which in wikipedia seems to be rendered in English as "adhesion procedure, adhesive procedure or ancillary proceedings". I am not at all convinced that this term "adhesion procedure" is an adequate or even correct correspondent with the French law procedure "se porter partie civile" but my lack of knowledge in law makes it difficult for me to tell.

This procedure "se porter partie civile" occurs several times in the article and has been translated into English as the vague and imprecise "assisted in the trial". Someone with better legal knowledgethan I have could improve the article on this point.

4) There is a photo of Marina on http://innocenceendanger.org/2012/marche-blanche-pour-marina-sabatier-2/. But permission would have to be obtained to post this in this Wikipedia article.

5) More details of this little girl Marina'a sufferings at the hands of her parents are given only in the references of the French and English wikipedia articles but have been omitted from the main part of French wikipedia article as well as that of the English translation. They were raised at the trial of the parents but they are not the point of the wikipedia article and so are omitted except for references. I have tried to show in this article the respect and dignity to Marina that she deserves and expect other contributors to this article to do the same.

Comments on this article are very welcome.