- Henri Jibrayel appears from Monday before the Marseille Criminal Court for breach of trust and illegal taking of interest.
- The former PS deputy pleaded from the beginning his release, refuting any electoral patronage.
- Several times postponed, the trial opens while relatives of Henri Jibrayel, including his son, are part of the new municipal team.
Anonymous letters and mini-cruises at the heart of the accusation. When two investigating magistrates look, in 2011, on one-day sea trips offered with public money to seniors living in Marseille, they tick. The seniors in question do not live in just any neighborhood. They are voters in the constituency of the northern districts then acquired by the PS deputy Henri Jibrayel, now departmental councilor. In their order for referral to the Marseille Criminal Court, the investigators castigate "a system aimed at diverting subsidies, via neighborhood associations having no autonomy, in order to finance electoral operations".
Several times postponed, especially because of the lawyers' strike, the trial of Henri Jibrayel for "breach of trust and illegal taking of interest" finally opens on Monday. In the line of sight, therefore, several cruises to Porquerolles on former SNCM ships. And more particularly two in 2011 but also two in June 2012, just after the legislative elections, all for a total amount of 68,150 euros. The bills were paid by associations, which the prosecution considers linked to Henri Jibrayel.
Jibrayel denies any misappropriation
The political context of the time is particularly tense: the campaign is at daggers drawn in the sector between the outgoing PS deputy Henri Jibrayel and the EELV candidate Karim Zeribi. Poster gliders even come to hand. As soon as he was indicted, he spoke of “a ridiculous affair” and said he was “confident”. "It is not a case of embezzlement, and I am delighted that the money was used for the seniors", he affirms then, as in his last statements to the press where he says to await the release (contacted by 20 Minutes , Henri Jibrayel did not answer our questions, just like his lawyer).
Chance of the judicial calendar, the trial opens after the election of the new mayor of Marseille, Michèle Rubirola, who has in his team the son of Henri Jibrayel and Samia Ghali, very close to the former PS deputy. “We have to see if the right-wing opposition will take up the case or not, observes the sociologist Cesare Mattina, author of a book on Urban clientelisms. Until now, Gaudin has never attacked the left in this area, whether during the Guérini affair or the Andrieux trial. "
"When two elected officials close to Samia Ghali were deprived of a deputy delegation after their custody, we did not hear Martine Vassal on it either," he adds. It must be said that the last municipal elections were marked by the affair, on the right, of irregular proxies in an Ephad. The new leader of the LR opposition to the city council Catherine Pila has not, for the time being, responded to our requests. On this side, the new majority probably does not have to fear political spikes around the trial.
Marseilles
Bouches-du-Rhône: A former PS deputy suspected of having "offered" mini-cruises to his constituents
Municipal
Municipal results in Marseille: "We are not bought with pasta and chocolate", residents denounce the uninhibited clientelism of the LR town hall of 11-12
- Marseilles
- Subsidies
- Breach of trust
- Justice