Two former parliamentary assistants to Jean-Luc Mélenchon at the European Parliament were placed in May under the intermediate status of assisted witness in the judicial investigation conducted in Paris on the conditions of employment of assistants to MEPs from France insoumise (LFI ), AFP learned on Tuesday from sources familiar with the matter.
Laurent Maffeis and Aigline de Causans, parliamentary assistants to Jean-Luc Mélenchon between 2009 and 2017, were questioned by the investigating judges in charge of these investigations respectively on May 13 and 16, according to these sources.
They are the first people and the only ones to date to have been heard by the investigating magistrates since the opening of this judicial investigation in November 2018.
They were summoned to be heard under the status of assisted witness for embezzlement of public funds, concealment and laundering of this offence, as well as breach of trust and concealment.
“We benefit in this case from the status of assisted witness, an intermediate status indicating that there is no serious and consistent evidence against my clients.“, reacted to AFP their lawyer Jade Dousselin.
“After nearly five years of investigation and large-scale investigations, we can only welcome the placement under this status which demonstrates that it has not been possible to establish any element of incrimination against Mr. . Mélenchon and his parliamentary assistants”.
If they are not subsequently indicted, his clients cannot be sent back to court for a trial.
In 2017, the Paris prosecutor’s office opened a preliminary investigation into the conditions of employment of assistants to LFI MEPs following a report by MEP Sophie Montel, then a member of the National Front. This procedure was entrusted to investigating judges from the financial center of the Paris court in November 2018.