Case of "eavesdropping": administrative investigation against magistrates of the National Financial Prosecutor's Office, announces the Chancellery

An administrative investigation was opened Friday against magistrates from the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF), a few days after the delivery of a report on the controversial investigation to identify the possible "mole" of Nicolas Sarkozy in the so-called case "listening".

This investigation, entrusted to the General Inspectorate of Justice, targets in particular the former head of the PNF Eliane Houlette who had refused to be heard by the inspection, said the Ministry of Justice in a press release.

Breaches of duty of care

According to the press release, the analysis of the report of the general inspectorate, made public on Tuesday, shows that "the facts noted would be likely to be regarded as breaches of the duty of diligence, professional rigor and loyalty".

The investigation targets the two magistrates who were in charge of the file, Patrice Amar and Lovisa-Ulrika Delaunay-Weiss, as well as Eliane Houlette who was their hierarchical superior.

The PNF had been blamed for having peeled the detailed telephone records ("fadettes") of tenors of the bar - including Eric Dupond-Moretti, since become Minister of Justice - to try to find who could have informed the former President and his lawyer Thierry Herzog that they were wiretapped, in a corruption case - which earned them a trial scheduled for the end of the year.

Eric Dupond-Moretti was then angry against "methods of barbouzes" and had filed a complaint in particular for "invasion of privacy", before withdrawing the evening of his appointment as Keeper of the Seals.

The inspection report had generally cleared the PNF

The inspection report had generally cleared the PNF from customs, noting the permanent concern of investigators not to "excessively expose the privacy and professional secrecy of the holders of the lines operated".

But he also criticized the duration of this investigation: six years from 2014 to 2019, including three years without any investigation.

He had, moreover, noted "a lack of rigor" in the treatment of the procedure and a "hierarchical escalation of incomplete information", in view of the sensitivity of the main case involving a former President of the Republic and "relating to a suspicion of leaks within the judicial world".

The scale of the investigations and their duration, revealed by Le Point in June, had caused a stir among lawyers and the political class.