Paris (AFP)

Faced with the "lack of progress" in the investigation into the death of her father, the daughter of Robert Boulin, minister found dead in a pond in the forest of Rambouillet in 1979, sued the State for "serious misconduct" before the Paris judicial tribunal.

"I do not despair of justice because I am resolutely a democrat but I have been waiting for justice for 42 years, I am very patient but it damages our democracy not to do everything to know the truth about the death of my father, "Fabienne Boulin-Burgeat told AFP.

She accuses the two investigating magistrates of Versailles (Yvelines) of "not working" and deplores the "lack of progress" in the investigation.

For this, she asks the State for 100,000 euros in compensation for the damage, confirming information from the newspaper Le Monde.

Asked by AFP, the judicial court and the prosecution of Versailles had not reacted immediately.

Robert Boulin's body was found on the morning of October 30, 1979, in 50 cm of water in the Rompu pond in Saint-Léger-en-Yvelines (Yvelines).

Officially, the Minister of Labor of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, 59, committed suicide after consuming barbiturates.

The case was initially classified as a suicide before an investigation was opened following a complaint from the family in 1983. The latter ended in a dismissal in 1991.

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In 2015, justice decided to reopen the case for "kidnapping" and "assassination", following a complaint from Ms. Boulin-Burgeat, convinced that it was a political assassination and that the minister has was killed because he had information about hidden funding from his political family (RPR).

-The "withering away of evidence" -

More than five years after the start of the investigation, "more than twenty-five witnesses are still waiting to be heard, if they are able to do so or, worse, that some have not died in the meantime", regret in a statement sent to AFP, Fabienne Boulin-Burgeat and her lawyer Me Marie Dosé, specifying that "four witnesses are dead".

Deploring the "decline of evidence", they insist: "This series of deficiencies in the search for the causes of the death of Robert Boulin reflects the inability of the public service of justice to fulfill the mission with which it is invested and characterizes a serious fault of State".

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In addition, they assure that no judicial reconstitution or any displacement on the spot were programmed and that no act of instruction has been "fixed" for months.

In the summons consulted by AFP and delivered on June 14 to the Paris judicial court, several exchanges between the civil party and the successive investigating judges underline "the absence of due diligence recorded in the investigation file" and the " requests for an act left a dead letter ".

"I have noticed that for months, two thirds of the case has only consisted of the work of the civil party," Marie Dosé told AFP.

The last "advance" in this case dates back to November: a new college of experts mandated to determine the causes of the death of Robert Boulin considered the initial findings insufficient to conclude "formally" a death by drowning.

A year before, in the fall of 2019, judging the investigations to be too slow, the family had decided to organize a "citizen reconstitution", where the body of the Minister of Labor was found on October 30, 1979.

Resistance member turned lawyer, Robert Boulin had started a political career in 1958 by becoming Gaullist deputy of Gironde then mayor of Libourne a year later before occupying numerous ministerial portfolios.

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His popularity had then fueled rumors which designated him as "prime minister" of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.

The day before his death, on leaving the Ministry of Labor, he had deposited confidential files in his apartment in Neuilly-sur-Seine and then left for an unknown destination.

© 2021 AFP