A policeman from Ajaccio is indicted on Monday for "passive corruption".

The official is suspected of having communicated information to the Corsican criminal gang of "Petit Bar", allowing members to escape arrest. 

A policeman from Ajaccio was indicted on Monday for "passive corruption", suspected of having communicated information allowing members of the Corsican criminal gang of "Petit Bar" to escape arrest, told l 'AFP a judicial source and his lawyer.

Born in the early 2000s, the "Petit Bar" gang, named after a café in the Cours Napoléon in Ajaccio where its members met, has been considered for several years by the authorities as a powerful Corsican criminal group.

"Prohibition to go to Corsica"

The gang is suspected of drug trafficking, murder, extortion and money laundering internationally, and several of its suspected members are on trial.

Police officer of the Departmental Directorate of Public Security (DDSP) of Ajaccio, Yves Robert was indicted by an investigating judge of the Specialized Interregional Jurisdiction (JIRS) of Marseille, responsible for cases of serious crime, for " passive corruption "," disclosure of information on an investigation for a felony or misdemeanor punishable by 10 years' imprisonment to a person likely to be involved in it "," misuse of the purpose of data "and" violation of professional secrecy ", have JIRS ​​and its lawyer, Me Antoine Vinier-Orsetti, told AFP.

The police officer was also placed under the status of assisted witness for "association of criminals", specified the same sources, indicating that he had been placed under judicial control with "prohibition to go to Corsica", to have certain contacts and "to exercise the functions of a police officer".

In custody since Thursday as revealed by the weekly Le Point, the police officer is suspected of having communicated information to Jean-Laurent Susini, brother-in-law of Jacques Santoni, considered by the authorities as the leader of the gang of the "Petit Bar".

Friendship

This information would have enabled three important members of this band, André Bacchiolelli, Mickaël Ettori and Pascal Porri, to escape a police strike on September 28 in Ajaccio, a source close to the case told AFP, confirming information from the daily Le Monde and the weekly l'Obs.

Following this failed net, the judicial police (PJ) in Corsica had been divested in favor of the gendarmerie of the investigations concerning the gang of the "Petit Bar".

"Yves Robert never had the information on the police operation targeting the Petit Bar and even if he had had them, he would not have disclosed them", told AFP Me Vinier-Orsetti, assuring that "no listening or no witness allows to say the opposite".

Yves Robert and Jean-Laurent Susini maintained a "friendly relationship" with calls and daily coffee, said Me Vinier-Orsetti.

Contacted by AFP, Judge Gilbert Thiel, now retired, said he had withdrawn for "lack of loyalty" the PJ of Corsica in April 2014, after revelations from the same Yves Robert, who was then working at the PJ of Ajaccio on an investigation for which the magistrate was responsible for rocket attacks against gendarmerie barracks in 2013.

The investigation had made it possible to discover the DNA of Antoine Pes, a nationalist already condemned and "well known to justice", in a "conspiratorial box" in Ajaccio, according to the judge.

But, "surprise!", "Major Robert had come to say" it is not possible, I was with him, he is an informant of the services. "Except that this informant was not registered in accordance with the regulations. internal police force, ”Judge Thiel said.

Another contact?

The police officer was not subject to any judicial or administrative sanction in this case, his lawyer told AFP.

Several sources familiar with the matter also told AFP that any leaks to the benefit of the criminal gang could not be the fault of a single person.

Yves Robert was working in September at the DDSP, located in the same police station as the PJ but on a different floor, the PJ having "secure access", these sources said.

During police eavesdropping by members of the Petit Bar cited by Le Monde, Jacques Santoni spoke on May 28, 2019 of "a police contact at the BRI (research and intervention brigade: Editor's note), who must retire in two years "and which informed him of the investigations in progress.

He also spoke of a judge.