Conflicts of interest: legal proceedings will be opened against Eric Dupond-Moretti
The Minister of Justice, Éric Dupond-Moretti.
REUTERS - POOL
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A judicial investigation will soon be opened against the French Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti for “illegal taking of interest”, announced Friday in a press release the Attorney General at the Court of Cassation, François Molins.
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The complaints commission of the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR, competent for acts performed by ministers in the exercise of their functions) ruled admissible complaints from the anti-corruption association Anticor and three unions magistrates against the Minister of Justice, added François Molins in a press release.
The latter accuse Eric Dupond-Moretti of having launched administrative proceedings in September against three magistrates of the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) who had participated in an investigation to identify the mole who would have informed former President Nicolas Sarkozy and his lawyer Thierry Herzog that they were tapped.
During these investigations, detailed telephone billings of several lawyers, including that of the future minister, had been examined.
These complaints also accuse the Minister of having opened another administrative investigation against Judge Édouard Levrault who had denounced, after the end of his duties as an investigating judge in Monaco, having been pressured.
Before becoming minister, Eric Dupond-Moretti had been the lawyer for one of the police officers indicted (indicted) by this magistrate and had criticized the judge's methods.
Following these complaints, the CJR's complaints commission approved François Molins' request to seize the investigating commission of the same CJR.
This investigating committee acts as an investigating judge concerning the acts performed by the ministers in the exercise of their functions, and will therefore investigate the Keeper of the Seals once the judicial investigation has been effectively opened by François Molins .
Asked Thursday evening on the public channel France 2 on the complaint of the magistrates' unions, the Minister of Justice had indicated: "
I do not know what fate will be reserved for him, but know that when the time comes, I will explain myself, you can count on me to say everything I have to say
”.
"
The opening of judicial information was necessary, an investigation must take place, there is obviously a problem
", reacted for his part Me Jérôme Karsenti, lawyer of Anticor.
Several other ministers or ex-ministers under the chairmanship of Emmanuel Macron, including the former head of government Édouard Philippe, have already been targeted since July by another judicial information entrusted to the investigative committee of the CJR, this time concerning the management of the coronavirus crisis.
(With Afp)
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