Justice has not finished with “Camba”. The former first secretary of the Socialist Party Jean-Christophe Cambadélis was refused Tuesday a guilty plea procedure which would have avoided a trial in a case of embezzlement of parliamentary mandate expenses for a total amount of 114,000 euros. At the end of the hearing, Mr. Cambadélis’ lawyer declared that he was going to think about the advisability of appealing this refusal of approval. Failure to do so would pave the way for a trial in criminal court.
The former socialist deputy had agreed to be tried during an appearance procedure on admission of guilt (CRPC) at the Paris court. The CRPC – a sort of French-style “plead-guilty” – is based on an agreement between the prosecution and the perpetrator of an offence, who acknowledges his guilt and is offered a sentence. But a judge must then give the green light in a so-called probate hearing.
During the hearing on Tuesday, the president of the court explained that “Camba” was accused of the embezzlement of 114,057 euros in representative compensation for mandate expenses (IRFM) between 2015 and 2017. At the helm, the ex- elected acknowledged the facts and accepted the sentence, proposed by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF), of six months suspended imprisonment and one year of ineligibility also suspended.
“A prison sentence was “stronger than a fine”, which risked “remaining a dead letter”
It has also begun to reimburse the National Assembly. But the president refused to approve this sentence, considering that it was not adapted to the “seriousness of the acts (…) committed by an elected representative of the Republic” and regretting that the PNF did not propose in addition a fine. The prosecutor had explained a little earlier that he had not withheld the fine to take into account “a situation of misfortune” for Mr. Cambadélis and because a prison sentence was “stronger than a fine”. which risked “remaining a dead letter”.
In 2018, the High Authority for the Transparency of Public Life (HATVP) sent the files of around fifteen elected officials to the courts after checking the variation in their assets between the first IRFM framework rules in 2015 and their end of term in 2017.
On March 11, the PNF had indicated that nine parliamentarians or former parliamentarians had escaped legal proceedings after having reimbursed the Senate or the Assembly for fraudulent expenses related to the use of their representative allowance for mandate expenses, between 2015 and 2017. Three procedures remained in progress at the PNF, including that of Mr. Cambadélis.