2023-10-09 17:11:35
He is accused of having increased the salaries of relatives in an irregular manner. The DVD mayor of Sète (Hérault) François Commeinhes was sentenced Monday on appeal to a one-year suspended prison sentence for “embezzlement of public funds” and to a ban on holding the office of mayor, a decision that he will contest in cassation.
The judgment of the Montpellier Court of Appeal, rendered in the absence of François Commeinhes, “invalidates” the acquittal pronounced in December 2022 at first instance with regard to the 73-year-old elected official, at the head of the port city since 2001.
Following the prosecution’s requisitions during the hearing on June 26, the court of appeal found François Commeinhes, a professional doctor and former senator, guilty of having signed between 2016 and 2019 decrees increasing in a manner deemed irregularly the remuneration of his former general director of services, Patrice Millet, for 99,000 euros, and the head of the city’s “real estate” service, for 44,000 euros.
“No personal enrichment”
She sentenced François Commeinhes to one year in prison, a fine of 15,000 euros and five years of ineligibility and a ban on holding the office of mayor. François Commeinhes, who has always contested any wrongdoing, will “immediately” file an appeal, his lawyer, David Mendel, said after the hearing.
The sentences handed down on Monday are suspended pending the decision of the Court of Cassation and François Commeinhes, re-elected in 2020, can continue to exercise his 4th mandate, his counsel indicated.
“I do not see how we can go from a total absence of demonstration of desire to commit an offense, although recorded in the report of the SRPJ (regional judicial police service), to a voluntary offense,” commented Mr. Mendel. “There was no personal enrichment in this affair,” he added.
Prosecuted for concealment of embezzlement of public funds, Patrice Millet received a one-year suspended prison sentence and a fine of 50,000 euros. His lawyers will examine the possibility of also filing a cassation appeal.
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