The lawyers of François Fillon asked this Tuesday at the Paris Criminal Court to reopen the trial proceedings of the ex-Prime Minister, after recent statements on "pressure" during the investigation, they announced to the 'AFP.
On June 10, before a parliamentary committee, Eliane Houlette, the former head of the National Financial Prosecutor's Office, was moved on June 10 by the "very close control" that the General Prosecutor's Office, its direct supervisory authority, would have exercised in the conduct investigations launched during the 2017 presidential campaign.
“Procedural” pressures
Friday, she clarified that these pressures were "not on the facts alleged against Mr. Fillon or on the merits of the prosecution", but "were purely procedural." "Mr. Fillon was not charged at the request or under pressure from the executive," she insisted. In the evening, the Head of State, Emmanuel Macron, asked the Higher Judicial Council (CSM) for an opinion to "verify that the National Financial Prosecutor's Office had conducted its investigation" in all serenity, without pressure "from the 'executive.
This announcement from the lawyers of François Fillon, his wife, Penelope, and the former substitute of Mr. Fillon in Sarthe, Marc Joulaud, poses a major uncertainty about the rendering of the judgment, expected Monday, in this case concerning suspicions of fictitious employment of Mrs. Fillon.
Launched in the middle of the presidential campaign, the investigation had poisoned François Fillon's candidacy for the Elysee, beaten in the first round.
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- Fraud
- Prosecutor
- François Fillon