The former director of Spanghero, tried in Paris after the scandal of horse meat sold for beef, defended Wednesday to have knowingly marketed the horse, citing only "negligence" in terms of labeling. Judged with three other defendants for deception and scams in organized gang, Jacques Poujol, 47, was de facto general director of this meat processing company when the food scandal broke out in Europe in early 2013.

Jacques Poujol, the former factory manager in Occitania and two Dutch middlemen are suspected of having sold between 2012 and early 2013 more than 500 tons of horse presented as beef to the company Tavola, which manufactured ready meals for brands like Picard and Findus. Jacques Poujol and the Dutch "trader" Johannes Fasen send the ball back: Johannes Fasen claims that Jacques Poujol had ordered him from the horse, when he repeats having been deceived by Draap trading, the Dutch company. Subject to the rather technical questions of the Criminal Court, Jacques Poujol, beard and broad shoulders, tried to repeat that he did not know that the horse was passing through his company.

"Visually, nothing happens". The appearance of the meat could not alert him, he says: "We bought, we resold.The product arrived frozen at -20 ° C with frost, visually, nothing happens". And the purchase price? The prosecution believes it could not be beef. Jacques Poujol, "in the meat" for 25 years after having "learned the trade with his dad at the butcher", replies that he ordered for Tavola "beef without any bacteriological requirements, which had no requirement 100 % muscular". Cheaper than beef for chopped steaks so. This intermediary activity between Draap and Tavola was handled solely by Jacques Poujol and the transactions, oral. The goods came mainly from Belgium or Romania. In the absence of a signed contract, "should not we be even more careful when we receive the meat?" ask the president. This activity "accounted for 4% of Spanghero's turnover", "about two deliveries a month", responds the defendant: "There was no special attention" to give him. This trade was nevertheless "of considerable importance", replies the magistrate, "because it is by this activity" that Spanghero, in difficulty, "was raised financially".

Spanghero replaced the labels. Spanghero herself used the Dutch meat to make merguez. But these were made from crushed frozen meat, no more recognizable, says Jacques Poujol. Butchers said they spotted the horse in the company? He was not "aware". The customs code of the horse appeared on Draap's bills? "I never worked with these codes that I did not know". As for the denomination, Draap delivered meat labeled BF for "boneless fore", "before boneless", according to the Dutch. But for Jacques Poujol, "BF means beef". Remain the "errors" recognized by the defendant. Spanghero replaced Draap's labels with cards that only mentioned an "EU" origin and the stamp of his cold storage. The origin of the meat or the place of slaughter was erased. Jacques Poujol "recognizes negligence". "An error on the country of slaughter, an error on the country of breeding ... that makes a lot of it," remarks the president. Finally, when the magistrate asks him if "all this was not intended to make Tavola believe that the meat was transformed within Spanghero," he agrees. The trial will resume Monday morning.