One of the protagonists of the Benalla affair, the soldier Chokri Wakrim, implicated members of the Elysée in the disappearance of two safes of the ex-missionary of the Elysée, has it been learned Wednesday from sources close to the file, confirming information from Mediapart.
Heard on Tuesday by the Criminal Brigade, Chokri Wakrim said he saw two members of the presidency in the presence of the first safe in the Parisian apartment of Pascale Perez, a businesswoman who helped Alexandre Benalla, said one of the sources close to the case.
According to the witness, it would be Christian Guédon, a member of the Presidency of the Republic Security Group (GSPR), and an advisor to the Chief of the General Staff of Emmanuel Macron, Ludovic Chaker, by elsewhere former secretary general of En Marche.
Benalla criticizes Mediapart article
This chest, which Alexandre Benalla used to store his weapons, was no longer at home during the search of July 2018 at the start of the case. Unable to find, he is at the heart of one aspect of the sprawling affair that bears his name. Since February 2019, investigators have been seeking to determine whether there has been concealment of evidence from the former missionary.
This strong cabinet "must have been taken to a safe place by a person but it was not me who took care of that", replied Alexandre Benalla in the summer of 2018. On Twitter Wednesday, he denounced the article from Mediapart, qualified as “copy and paste of a report by Chokri Wakrim, without checking even a word of what this gentleman invents…” “The truth is that there are 4 chests ", He quipped.
Sport bag
Auditioned in July, Ludovic Chaker admitted having participated in the exfiltration of the Benalla family, whose home was surrounded by the media. But he "strongly contested from the start having moved this chest", according to those around him. During his hearing, which lasted more than nine hours, Chokri Wakrim also indicated that he had witnessed a conversation during which Alexandre Benalla asked Christian Guédon to empty a second safe in his office at the Élysée Palace.
According to Chokri Wakrim, the contents of this trunk, emptied just before the search of July 25, 2018, had been carried in a sports bag, which he said he saw at the home of Pascale Perez. In mid-November, this non-commissioned officer of the Air Force had written to the Paris prosecutor to request his hearing, already mentioning "the existence of a second chest (...) at the Elysée Palace". The investigation had just been entrusted to an investigating judge. Accused in early 2019 in a Liberation article of having moved the first safe, Chokri Wakrim has always denied any role in this disappearance.
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- Emmanuel Macron
- Alexandre Benalla