Renaud Van Ruymbeke investigated, during his career as an examining magistrate, the Boulin, Kerviel and Cahuzac cases, as well as many other financial scandals that he mentions in his book, "Memoirs of a too independent judge "(Ed. Tallandier).
At the microphone of Europe 1, he returns to the evolutions of justice in this matter.
INTERVIEW
Renaud Van Ruymbeke was only 27 when he began to investigate the accounts of Robert Boulin, then Minister of Labor, and accused of having acquired land fraudulently.
This case, which ended in the mysterious death of Robert Boulin, places the examining magistrate, then stationed in Caen, under the spotlight.
He will never leave them, during a career marked by the financial scandals which he recounts in his book,
Memories of a too independent judge
(Ed. Tallandier).
The magistrate returns, at the microphone of Europe 1, on the major cases which marked his years as magistrate.
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A landmark case
With the Boulin affair, Renaud Van Ruymbeke is attacking a leading figure, the Minister of Labor.
The investigation is causing a stir.
"By investigating the accounts of a minister, I was doing something unusual in the judiciary at the time," recalls the magistrate.
"Until then, financial records never went to the next level, that of people in authority. But I obviously did not expect the death of the minister."
This death makes him falter for a moment.
"I wondered if I hadn't gone too far, then reason prevailed, I couldn't hush up a case. It was like denying myself completely."
This case, violent for him, will "vaccinate" him in the face of the hardships he will encounter thereafter.
Among them, the Clearstream affair, in 2004. Politicians and industrialists are trying to manipulate justice, in particular by claiming that a certain Nicolas Sarkozy has an account abroad.
Renaud Van Ruymbeke is leading an investigation that will turn sour: some names denounced in the list of occult accounts are false.
This case will be "the regret of his life", admits the investigating judge on Europe 1.
Policies facing their responsibilities
Renaud Van Ruymbeke will subsequently investigate the Kerviel and Cahuzac cases, among others.
It digs the furrow of financial affairs.
"If there has been a de facto change since the time of Robert Boulin, it is because politicians are no longer above the law," he believes.
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On the other hand, political pressure on the judiciary still exists, he said.
"The political discourse has not really changed, we saw it with the Fillon affair in 2017, or that of the FN campaign financing," recalls Renaud Van Ruymbeke.
We face the same reproaches, the same attempts at destabilization, whether the government in place is on the right or on the left. "The examining magistrate, who had refused to join the office of the Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti, hopes that A far-reaching reform could be envisaged in the future, one which will make it possible to "make the prosecution independent" and free it from the Ministry of Justice.