2023-08-30 09:24:25
Jean-Baptiste Soufron (left), and Elise Van Beneden, lawyers for Anticor, during a press conference for the anti-corruption association, in Paris, October 4, 2022. GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT / AFP
What are the concrete consequences of the withdrawal, with retroactive effect to April 2021, of the government approval of the anti-corruption association Anticor, decided by the Paris administrative court on June 23? Devoid of this precious sesame which allowed it to take legal action in cases of presumed breach of probity, engaged in 159 proceedings, Anticor can no longer file a complaint with a civil action. – which makes it possible to seize an investigating judge –, in particular in the event of disagreement with the prosecution and classification without further action.
Read the analysis: Article reserved for our Anticor subscribers: the consequences of the withdrawal of approval for the anti-corruption association
The association filed, on August 22, a double petition before the Administrative Court of Appeal of Paris against the judgment of the administrative court, in order to have its effects canceled before a new decision of this court, and sent a new request for approval from the Matignon departments. In the meantime, Anticor is weakened in several proceedings.
This is the case in Alès (Gard), where the prosecution opened, in 2019, a preliminary investigation into the construction of 180 student accommodation on the site of the Student House of the Ecole des Mines. In the form of a construction lease entrusted to the social landlord Logis Cévenols OPH of Grand Alès, this real estate transaction is estimated at 12.3 million euros.
In December 2018, the association for the defense of the interests of the former students of the École des Mines d’Alès filed a complaint with the Alès public prosecutor’s office to denounce alleged acts of “favouritism” and “taking illegal interest” in connection with the award, in 2016, of two project management contracts as part of this project. Wishing to extend the investigation to alleged acts of “embezzlement of public funds”, Anticor filed an additional complaint with the Alès prosecutor’s office in December 2021, highlighting the possible involvement of Max Roustan, 78, mayor (Les Républicains) of the commune since 1995 and former deputy of Gard.
“Blocking situation”
After several months of silence, the public prosecutor of Alès, François Schneider, sent a letter to the association, in May 2022, “informing Anticor that it would soon make a decision and provide us with the copy of the file”according to his lawyer François de Cambiaire. “We haven’t received anything since”laments the latter.
Through the voice of its lawyer Inès Bernard, Anticor denounces “a blocking situation and the inertia of the prosecution” : “We still do not know whether the facts brought to the attention of the prosecutor by Anticor – and in particular the potential involvement of the mayor of Alès – have given rise to acts of investigation, since the prosecution has been opposing us with its silence on this point for two years. , which is abnormal. »
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