2023-11-06 19:29:57
And Justice minister sitting in the dock of the accused. The situation is worthy of an imaginary fourth season of the series Black Baron, but this is the reality that the French Government faces this week. This Monday started in the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR)el juicio by Éric Dupond-Morettigovernment head of the judicial establishment since the summer of 2020. This media lawyer in the past and controversial minister in the present is accused of a crime of conflict of interests for having allegedly taken revenge on those magistrates with whom he had clashed in the past. He is he first minister of justice prosecuted in the history of the Fifth Republic.
“Those people under the hierarchical orders of a minister must support the accusations against him, it makes no sense! Beyond the Franco-French prism, What image are we going to give abroad?“lamented a magistrate in statements to the progressive newspaper Release. The situation is surreal: a minister will face the same officials he directs for two weeks (until November 17).
This process can not only further damage the image of the Government of Emmanuel Macron —Up to 17 ministers or secretaries of State have been affected by affaires since 2017—but also of the French justice system, accused of being too benign with the powerful. Created in 1993, the CJR is the special court in charge of trying members of the Executive for crimes committed during the exercise of their functions. Is composed of three judges of the Court of Cassation and 12 parliamentarians (four from Macron’s party, four from the Republican right, two from the left, one from the conservative UDI and one from the extreme right of Marine Le Pen).
Mood for “revenge”, according to the accusation
“For me and my loved ones, this process is an infamy“, Dupond-Moretti declared in the afternoon at the first hearing of the trial. “I have accepted that they cover me with disgrace so that neither the ministry nor my administration are tarnished,” he added. Specifically, they accuse the minister, 62 years of having initiated disciplinary proceedings against four judges with which he had faced when he was practicing as a lawyer.
???? AND DIRECTLY
Before the judges, Éric Dupond-Moretti said he accepted “the opprobrium” so as not to “splatter” his ministry pic.twitter.com/QK1rsHLUWO— BFMTV (@BFMTV) November 6, 2023
On the one hand, these measures, with the intention of “revenge” according to the accusation, affected the investigating magistrate of Monaco, Edouard Levraultwho investigated the Russian billionaire Dmitri Rybolovlev, owner of the AS Monaco football team, and a police officer in the principality, both legally advised by Dupond-Moretti. On the other hand, there were also disciplinary proceedings against three members of the national financial prosecutor’s officewho had in the past investigated the current Minister of Justice in the framework of the judicial wiretapping case, for which the former president Nicolas Sarkozy and his lawyer Thierry Herzog, both close to Dupond-Moretti.
All of these disciplinary processes were dismissed by the Superior Council of the Judiciary. “The Minister of Justice found himself in an objective situation of conflict of interest“, indicated last year that body in charge of ensuring the independence of the judiciary with respect to the executive. A crime of conflict of interest in France can carry penalties of up to five years in prisonthe disqualification y fines of a maximum of 500,000 euros. If he is convicted, Dupon-Moretti will have to resign, the prime minister has assured, Elisabeth Bornewhose decision to keep him in office during the trial has sparked widespread criticism.
media lawyer
Before his appointment as minister in July 2020, Dupond-Moretti was one of the best-known lawyers in France for having taken on the defense of Abdelkader Merah —brother of the jihadist Mohamed Merah— or Karim Benzema in the case of the luxury prostitute Zahia, among many other cases with great media impact. Her appointment was highly criticized by unions and magistrates’ organizations, with which she had tense relations.
“Despite all the warnings, Dupond-Moretti did not take the measures that would allow him to distance himself from the conflicts of interest in those two dossiers. He consciously promoted administrative investigations against these magistrates, which he should have avoided,” the magistrates of instruction in interlocutory. The minister, who promoted these disciplinary processes just a month after taking office, defends himself with the argument that he did so following the advice of his administration. He reproaches the investigating magistrates for promoting this judicial process to “dirty his reputation as a lawyer“.
After the Dupond-Moretti case, they will also try at the end of the month Minister of Labor, Olivier Dussopt, accused of a crime of favoritism in 2009 when he was mayor of Annonay (center-east). These trials coincide with that of François Bayrou, former Minister of Justice and one of Macron’s first allies, tried within the framework of an alleged plot of false parliamentary assistants in the European Parliament. A series of scandals weaken Macron’s initial promise to build a “exemplary republic“. Since 2017, that ideal has been diluted with the succession of affairesas well as the few measures promoted to fight against corruption.
#Trial #French #Minister #Justice #accused #advantage #position #settle #scores #magistrates