2023-05-11 13:25:04
DISPATCH — The Paris administrative court could on Friday cancel the judicial approval granted to the anti-corruption association Anticor, which allows it to take legal action. As AFP reports, this decision follows a referral from June 2021, and could have consequences on several sensitive political and financial issues.
The plaintiffs, dissidents of the association, contest the decree of April 2, 2021 signed by Jean Castex, which had allowed the renewal of Anticor’s approval for three years. The latter, the association had torn from high struggles because of some controversies… But according to the applicants, the renewal procedure was irregular and the approval should not have been granted, for lack of conditions fulfilled by Anticor: independent and disinterested nature of its activities, information of its members on the management, etc
Friday, May 12, the administrative court must rule on this appeal.
For the moment, the public rapporteur “concluded the cancellation of the approval granted by the Prime Minister in April 2021.” The plaintiffs’ lawyer, Me Frédéric Thiriez, welcomed it: “He followed our arguments.”
For her part, the president of Anticor, Elise Van Beneden, accuses the blow: “The cancellation of the approval of the Anticor association would be a blow to the fight against corruption and therefore to our democracy.” That’s where it all rests l’association : “Fighting corruption and restoring ethics in politics”. A withdrawal of approval would be for her “a new attempt to stifle our voice and those of the citizens who support us”. She adds that “it would be taking the risk of restricting the ability of civil society to take legal action against corruption, in a context where political and financial affairs are accumulating and freedom of association is declining”.
“Many ongoing cases, at the highest level, could be threatened if Anticor lost its ability to bring civil action on behalf of all French people,” she also warned. Anticor’s lawyer in this case, Me Vincent Brengarth, denounced a procedure “abusive, unfounded, nonsense, in that it risks preventing the association’s fight against corruption”.
In some recent files where the proceedings were triggered by a complaint from Anticor, such as the file of relations between the former minister Sylvie Goulard and the American institute Berggruen, the sale of the energy branch of Alstom to General Electric or the Russian contracts of Alexandre Benalla, it is the entire procedure which risks cancellation, according to a source close to the association.
According to sources familiar with the matter, Anticor asked the administrative court as a precaution for a postponement in time of the effects in the event of cancellation.
#Justice #deprive #Anticor #association #approval