A judicial investigation for illegal taking of interests will be opened against the Minister of Justice, Eric Dupond-Moretti, after his decision to launch an administrative investigation against magistrates of the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) who ordered the examination of his fadettes , when he was a lawyer, in the so-called "wiretapping" case involving Nicolas Sarkozy.

François Molins, Attorney General at the Court of Cassation and, as such, representative of the prosecution before the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR), said on Friday, January 8, in a press release that the petitions commission of the CJR had acceded to his request, formulated following complaints filed in particular by the Anticor association, the Syndicat de la magistrature and the Syndicale Syndicale des Magistrates.

>> To read: Investigation of the PNF: magistrates appeal to Emmanuel Macron

The CJR's requests commission "gives a favorable opinion to the requests of the public prosecutor at the Court of Cassation, public prosecutor at the CJR, relating to the referral to the investigative commission of the CJR to investigate the count of illegal taking of 'interest against Mr. Dupond-Moretti ", it is written in this press release.

Dupond-Moretti refutes any conflict of interest situation

"It is now up to the Attorney General - bound by the terms of this decision - to open a judicial investigation against Mr. Éric Dupond-Moretti, for the aforementioned criminal qualification."

After the revelation of the examination of his fadettes as part of the investigation into the "eavesdropping" of Nicolas Sarkozy, for which a judgment is expected on March 1, Éric Dupond-Moretti, then a lawyer responsible for defending the interests of the One of the parties involved, had filed a complaint for violation of the secrecy of correspondence and violation of professional secrecy against the three PNF magistrates at the origin of this judicial initiative.

Back on the interview with @JacquesCardoze in #Complementdenquete last night, on my work with the magistrates for 6 months and on these complaints filed in particular by two union leaders.

pic.twitter.com/gB4shgJmEu

- Eric Dupond-Moretti (@E_DupondM) January 8, 2021

Having become a Keeper of the Seals, the criminal lawyer withdrew this complaint but an administrative investigation was opened against the three magistrates.

His detractors consider that there is an illegal taking of interests, which the Minister of Justice refuted in an interview broadcast Thursday evening on France 2, in which he claims to have "never been" in a situation of conflict of interest.

With Reuters

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