Comments by ex-prosecutor in Fillon case re-launch calls to reform the prosecution

An investigation conducted under "pressure": the statements of the former head of the National Financial Prosecutor's Office about the Fillon case have reopened the debate on the independence of the judiciary and calls to reform the prosecution.

Eliane Houlette, very discreet when she was the head of the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF), from its creation in 2014 to 2019, did not mince her words, on June 10, before the Commission of Inquiry of the National Assembly on obstacles to the independence of the judiciary.

The high magistrate, retired for a year, was moved by the "pressure" that would have exercised the public prosecutor's office, its supervisory authority, in the conduct of investigations against the Fillon spouses, one of the most sensitive cases of these last years.

>> Read: Fillon trial: the day after the requisitions, the defense pleads for release

Friday, Eliane Houlette however "regretted" that his words were "distorted or misunderstood". "Mr. Fillon was not charged at the request of or under pressure from the executive," she said through her lawyer. The "pressures" were "purely procedural".

His statements before the Commission of Inquiry, made public when the judgment will be rendered on June 29, triggered an avalanche of political reactions, from Marine Le Pen to Jean-Luc Mélenchon and especially in François Fillon's camp, Les Républicains.

It is not good for anyone in a democratic country that justice is manipulated by politics. pic.twitter.com/m51ZPg2KSZ

Response from the Attorney General of Paris

The statements of Eliane Houlette show "that this investigation was a charge, that she was crazy and that she had only one goal: to kill François Fillon", reacted Friday morning on Europe 1 Me Antonin Lévy, l lawyer of the unsuccessful presidential candidate. The independence of the judiciary is, he said, "a subject".

The Attorney General of Paris, Catherine Champrenault, responded Friday to her former colleague, deploring "that what is internal and usual functioning of the prosecution can be presented as pressures of any kind whatsoever on the judicial conduct of the case "Fillon.

For Céline Parisot, president of the Union syndicale des magistrats (USM, majority), it is indeed "a pity that Eliane Houlette lets think that these requests of the general parquet were abnormal, whereas it is the usual functioning between the parquet and the public prosecutor's office: it is allowed by the texts ".

>> Read: Suspicions of fictitious jobs: François Fillon and his wife Penelope in court

"The problem", for the union official, "is the status of the prosecution, which has been denounced for years". "The independence of the Attorney General is a bit fictitious since it reports directly to the Ministry of Justice".

"We are still calling for constitutional reform. Thus, the suspicions of pressure would no longer be valid," she added.

Emmanuel Macron had announced a reform so that prosecutors are appointed, like judges, on "assent" of the Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM), an independent body.

Prohibition for the Keeper of the Seals to give instructions

In practice, this has already been the case since 2012. But in theory, the executive can override the opinion of the CSM, which fuels suspicions of political instrumentalization of the prosecutions. This reform has been postponed indefinitely.

Katia Dubreuil, of the magistrates' union (SM), notes that "feedback is provided for by law and is perfectly legal". "This is the reason why we have been asking for years for the suppression of these information feeds."

Feedback: act!

Our PC following the words of the former head of the PNF before the commission of inquiry on the obstacles to the independence of the judiciary

Is feedback of information a problem? They are provided for by law. So let's change the law! pic.twitter.com/It2hSD1S9K

According to the rules in force, the public prosecutor's office may request information from the public prosecutor's office and forward it to the criminal affairs department, and pardons from the Chancellery, which can forward it to the office of the Minister of Justice.

On the other hand, the Taubira law of 2013 prohibits the Keeper of the Seals from giving instructions in individual files.

Before the commission of inquiry, Eliane Houlette had summed up: "The prosecution, it is an objective reality, is under the control of the executive". She had described "a culture of dependence, of submission", because the magistrates are subjected to the ministry for "the management of their career, in the process of appointment, which lacks transparency".

For the deputy Ugo Bernalicis (LFI), who chairs the commission, "to restore confidence in the justice, a reform of the statute of the parquet floor is necessary". "Until we do it, the suspicion will still be there and it may even be proven in some cases," he told AFP.

With AFP

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