A closed session to "prevent the disclosure of information relating to national defense". The very rare and ultra-sensitive trial of two former French secret agents suspected of treason in favor of China started on Monday July 6, doors closed before the Paris Assize Court.
The request for in camera came from General Counsel. It is a case of "penetration by a foreign power of French intelligence", she justified.
The accused, who appear free, look like ordinary retirees. Henri M., 73, white and sparse hair, slowly approached the court composed entirely of professional magistrates. The retired professional soldier who spent part of his life in China now lives in Alsace.
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Pierre-Marie H., 69, was a civilian defense official. The white-haired accused, dressed in a black jacket, appeared to have difficulty hearing the President. He lives in Eure with his wife Laurence H., who is also on the dock. She is a retiree from Crédit Lyonnais, but who has "mostly been a housewife".
The two men are former agents of the Directorate General for External Security (DGSE), the French spy service and have been involved in counter-espionage. They face 15 years in prison.
Spying on French foreign intelligence
The president's words recall the extraordinary nature of the dossier. "This is a case which concerns facts which harm the fundamental interests of the nation," he said, after accepting the request in camera. "It seems necessary not only to protect those who testify and to prevent the disclosure of information relating to national defense," added the magistrate.
Beside the parties, only officials from the Interior and Defense Ministries, as well as magistrates empowered for military matters were allowed to remain in the room.
Information is scarce in this case. These two men have, according to several media, spied on French foreign intelligence on behalf of Beijing. They are tried for "delivering information to a foreign power", "damaging the fundamental interests of the nation", "intelligence with a foreign power".
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Laurence H. appears for "concealment of property from intelligence with a foreign power likely to harm the fundamental interests of the nation".
It is a trial "rare by qualifications, rare by the quality of the accused, rare by the period of prevention", as pointed out by the Advocate General.
The former agents were indicted and remanded in December 2017, when they were already retired.
Very few treason cases tried before the courts
Twenty years earlier, Henri M. had been appointed official representative of the DGSE in Beijing. But he was recalled to France in early 1998, after having started a liaison with the Chinese interpreter of the ambassador. He retired a few years later and returned to China in 2003, where he married the former interpreter, with whom he settled on the island of Hainan, in southern China.
Pierre-Marie H. was arrested at Zurich airport with cash after meeting a Chinese contact on an island in the Indian Ocean. He has never been posted abroad. In addition to counterintelligence, it has gone through the surveillance of mass organizations, including unions.
Why were they arrested so late? According to a good expert on the file, there was a flaw in the DGSE and Henri M. was not watched for years after his retirement.
When the facts had been revealed, in May 2018, the French authorities had spoken of a case of "extreme gravity".
Very few treason cases have been tried before the courts. In October 1997, a former engineer at the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), had been sentenced to nine years' imprisonment for treason in favor of the former Soviet KGB. He was accused of selling secret documents in 1989 and 1990.
The verdict will be released on Friday.
With AFP
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