Paris (AFP)

Interior Minister Christophe Castaner announced "support" the proposal of the director of the national police to "dismiss from office" the departmental director of public security (DDSP) of the Alpes-Maritimes, suspected of embezzlement, Wednesday during the greetings from the Unsa-Police union.

Jean-François Illy is the subject of an administrative investigation by the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN). He is in particular suspected of having used his driver and his service bank card for non-professional activities and expenses when he was the DDSP of Bas-Rhin, according to a source close to the file.

Jean-François Illy, 55, was stationed in the Bas-Rhin from late 2012 to early 2019. In Strasbourg, he notably had to manage the attack on the Christmas market on December 11, 2018, which had killed five people and a dozen wounded, and the hunt for the assailant Chérif Chekatt, shot dead two days later by the police.

Jean-François Illy should be removed from office "during the day", according to a source familiar with the matter.

"Extremely feared among the staff" of the DDSP of Bas-Rhin, Mr. Illy led "a management of terror, which led to nobody talking and that there was a kind of omerta around all of that, "said a local police source, acknowledging that" from a police point of view, there was not much to blame him for. "

"We are satisfied with the decision: whether it is a very small peacekeeper or a great director, it shows that everyone is subject to the same rules", said Emmanuel Georg, regional secretary of Alsace 'SGP Police FO unit, which had very conflicting relationships with Mr Illy.

"Nobody dared to come to see us to say: + this is happening +, nobody gave us proof because they knew they were exposed to nameless rants," lamented Mr. Georg, evoking an "archaic management".

DDSP deputy for Bouches-du-Rhône from 2010 to 2012, Mr. Illy also left behind the memory of a policeman who could be "relentless on subordinates who did not belong to him", according to a police source in Marseille .

Earlier in his career, when he was a divisional commissioner in Sarcelles (Val-d'Oise), Jean-François Illy had been nicknamed "courageous commissioner" by the media after being beaten up by young people he was trying to calm down during the riots in Villiers-le-Bel in November 2007.

He had been seriously injured and President Nicolas Sarkozy, accompanied by the then Minister of the Interior, Michèle Alliot-Marie, had gone to his bedside.

Mr. Illy is also a Knight of the Legion of Honor and received the Medal of Honor for an act of courage and dedication.

grd-kap-bra-bur / bdx / it

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