The appointment of Gérald Darmanin to the Minister of the Interior on Monday in the Jean Castex government was somewhat overshadowed by the arrival in the team of Roselyne Bachelot and Eric Dupond-Moretti, respectively at Culture and there Justice. It is nonetheless extensively commented on. Because the former Minister of Public Accounts remains under the charge of rape, sexual harassment and breach of trust. In mid-June, after two years of procedural battle, the Paris Court of Appeal had ordered the resumption of investigations into this affair dating back to 2009. "Not an obstacle," argued the Elysée on Monday evening. However, the complainant's lawyers disagree.
"Never seen"
"This nomination is a shock, I will not hide it," reacted on Europe 1 on Tuesday Elodie Tuaillon-Hibon, the lawyer for Sophie Patterson-Spatz. "To my knowledge, it's unheard of in France," she laments. "We wonder how it will be when the first cop of France [will be] questioned in the office of an examining magistrate while he is in exercise."
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For Me Tuaillon-Hibon, the whole procedure is threatened today. "No matter how much we trust in a certain independence of the justice system, we cannot help asking ourselves questions and wondering what, today, guarantees us and guarantees our client that the investigations that must be resumed will take place without any pressure, of any kind, from the executive, "wonders the lawyer. "And in particular from the Minister of the Interior, who is the minister responsible for the judicial police officers who will have to act under letters rogatory. We are very worried."