Benalla in Chad: Jean-Yves Le Drian informed on December 24, after his ambassador

Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Wednesday that the French ambassador to Chad was aware of the former Elysee Alexandre Benalla's aide in that country but did not consider it useful to inform his hierarchy and that he himself was not aware that December 24. "I learned about the removal of Alexandre Benalla from December 5 to 6 in Chad on December 24" by the press, he said before the Senate committee investigating the case of Alexandre Benalla. The head of the French diplomacy then seized the prosecutor of the Republic for illicit use of diplomatic passports by the former adviser of the Elysee.

Press information as of December 12th. According to the newspaper Le Monde on December 24, Alexandre Benalla went to N'djamena accompanied by "half a dozen people, by private plane", three weeks before a visit of Emmanuel Macron in this country. The Lettre du Continent had mentioned this trip as early as 12 December. "On The Continent's Letter , I did not consider that this article was significant enough for me to initiate a section 40" seizure procedure of the prosecutor, he said. "On the other hand, I considered that the highly argued, very precise article of December 24th obliged me to act," added Jean-Yves Le Drian. Alexandre Benalla explained that it was a business trip, involving investment projects in Chad of "big bosses of the Middle East".

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"A lack of appreciation of our ambassador". The head of French diplomacy conceded that the French ambassador in N'djamena had been informed of this move. "I questioned our ambassador on this subject on December 26. He informed me that he was aware of this trip and that he did not consider it necessary to report it," Jean Yves Le Drian. "I consider that there has been a lack of appreciation of our ambassador, he has since explained it and he acknowledged his mistake, that's it," he added without further ado.

@ JY_LeDrian: "No information was brought back to us" before the article published in the World. # AffaireBenallapic.twitter.com / 0fUPWZtxwy

Jean-Yves Le Drian said he was a "regular in Chad" where he went on numerous occasions as Minister of Defense and Foreign Affairs. "When we know the N'djamena airport, we can imagine that a quality private plane that lands in N'djamena never goes unnoticed," he said, hinting that the ambassador had been informed of the visit from a "visual" observation at the airport.

Entered Chad and Israel with his diplomatic passport. Emmanuel Macron's chief of staff, Patrick Strzoda, had revealed just before the commission that the former Elysée employee had used "almost twenty times" his diplomatic passports after his dismissal at the end of July. Jean-Yves Le Drian said that Alexander Benalla had used his diplomatic passport at least to enter Chad and Israel. The head of French diplomacy has also refuted that Alexander Benalla was able to serve as an intermediary in a parallel diplomacy. "I said, at the request of the President of the Republic, all of our positions that no one could claim to be intermediary with anyone," he added. He also said that the two diplomatic passports of Alexandre Benalla were invalidated on December 28, almost two months after a request from the Quai d'Orsay to the Interior in this sense, because of an "incompatibility" between the computer systems of the two departments.