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The Keeper of the Seals Eric Dupond-Moretti finally agreed to be briefly heard by the magistrates of the Court of Justice of the Republic who indicted him in the summer of 2021 for suspicion of conflicts of interest, according to the AFP.
Suspected of having taken advantage of his position to settle scores with magistrates with whom he had had trouble when he was a lawyer in two cases, the Minister of Justice arrived at the CJR at 9 a.m. and left forty minutes later. late, refusing to answer the press.
“Ask the questions if you want to my lawyers, they will answer you”, simply declared the minister. Present at his side, his lawyers, Me Christophe Ingrain and Rémi Lorrain, did not wish to make statements. During a first hearing on the merits on March 3, which also lasted less than an hour, Eric Dupond-Moretti refused to answer questions from the magistrates of the CJR’s investigating committee.
The CJR is the only jurisdiction empowered to prosecute and try ministers for offenses committed in the exercise of their functions. In front of these magistrates, the Keeper of the Seals had read a declaration, of which AFP had obtained a copy, in which he justified his choice.
Role of “guarantor of the independence of justice”
“Everything in the conduct of your information demonstrates your determination not to get to the truth on allegations that you have taken for granted from the outset, but to smear the reputation of a former lawyer whose only trial you are supporting. which interests you, that of his illegitimacy to occupy the functions of Keeper of the Seals, ”he justified.
Chantal Arens, the president of the Court of Cassation, had “strongly regretted” these remarks and had then “recalled” the Keeper of the Seals to his role of “guarantor of the independence of justice”.
The Keeper of the Seals was heard on July 16, 2021 for nearly six hours by three judges of the CJR’s investigating committee, the only court authorized to prosecute and try ministers for offenses committed in the exercise of their functions. At the end of this interrogation, he was indicted for “illegal taking of interests”.
After complaints from magistrates’ unions and the anti-corruption association Anticor denouncing two situations of conflict of interest since his arrival at the Chancellery, the CJR opened a judicial investigation in January 2021.
“Follow recommendations”
The first concerns the administrative investigation he ordered in September 2020 against three magistrates of the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) who had had his detailed telephone bills peeled (“fadettes”) when he was still a star in the courtrooms.
In the other, he is accused of having instituted administrative proceedings against a former investigating judge seconded to Monaco, Edouard Levrault, who had indicted one of his ex-clients and whose methods he had criticized ” cowboy”.
Éric Dupond-Moretti insisted that he had only “followed the recommendations” of his administration. Neither his entourage nor his lawyers wished to comment before his hearing.