Paris (AFP)
The deputy chairman of MoDem Marielle de Sarnez was in turn indicted on Wednesday for embezzling public funds in the case of allegedly fictitious jobs of assistants of MEPs from the centrist party, which also threatens its president Francois Bayrou.
After more than ten hours of hearing at the Paris court, Ms. de Sarnez was indicted for the contract of a former assistant, AFP learned from concordant sources.
Regarding the contracts of five other assistants examined by the judges, the former MEP escaped the indictment and was placed under the intermediate status of assisted witness, according to a judicial source and a source familiar with the case.
"The procedure now gives him the means to intervene actively in the investigation," reacted to AFP his lawyers, Pierre Casanova, Christophe Ingrain and Paul Mallet. "Marielle de Sarnez will demonstrate that the offense with which she is charged is unfounded," they added.
Since November 15, several figures of the MoDem, including former Minister of Justice Michel Mercier or the financial director of the centrist party Alexandre Nardella, have already been indicted in this case.
The former MEP and current deputy governor of the Banque de France Sylvie Goulard was on November 29th. The president of the MoDem François Bayrou is on his side summoned Friday.
The judges are trying to determine whether parliamentary associates were paid by European Parliament funds when in fact they were assigned to other tasks for the centrist party.
The opening of a preliminary investigation by the Paris prosecutor's office in June 2017 led to the resignation of Bayrou from the post of Minister of Justice, as well as those of Marielle de Sarnez (European Affairs) and Sylvie Goulard ( armed).
More recently, this case also led to the rejection of Ms Goulard's candidacy for the post of European Commissioner.
- "Affabulation" -
Marielle de Sarnez, who was elected to the European Parliament from 1999 to 2017, was questioned by several protagonists, including one of her former assistants, Karine Aouadj.
The latter claims to have never actually performed tasks related to the European Parliament and was rather her personal assistant, dealing with domestic issues such as domestic staff, the construction of a house in Greece or its tax returns.
Before the investigators of the Central Office for the fight against corruption and financial and fiscal offenses (Oclciff) in Nanterre on September 11 and 12, the politician called these statements "fabulous", according to a report of which AFP has seen.
She also stressed that within the MoDem its function was "purely political".
"I was not in charge of the functioning of the party, I did not have an administrative function within the party or any responsibility for a particular field of the party," she said.
Last week, Bayrou had relativized these lawsuits. "Everyone is indicted or pretty much in French politics," he said on RMC and BFMTV.
"It's not because you're accused of something that's true," he defended, explaining that the collaborators worked "part-time" for the MoDem and "were paid for a fraction of time by the European Parliament and the other half of the time by (the) movement ". "What is wrong with that?" He asked, blaming the case on "slanderers".
The MoDem is not the only political formation in the lens of justice for supposedly fictitious jobs in the European Parliament. Similar investigations have thus been opened for France Insoumise (LFI) and for the National Front (FN). In the latter, about twenty people, including Marine Le Pen, have been indicted.
© 2019 AFP