Nanterre (AFP)

"Haurus", the former DGSI agent who was tried for selling information from protected police files on the darknet, was sentenced Thursday to seven years in prison, two of which were suspended by the Nanterre criminal court.

The prosecution had requested seven years in prison against this 35-year-old former police sergeant, who was being prosecuted for ten counts and had recognized the majority of the charges against him, claiming to have acted out of profit.

Found guilty of all the facts, he left the courtroom handcuffed.

His sentence is not adaptable "in order to prevent" new facts and he has the definitive ban to exercise in the public service, declared the judge during the deliberation.

At the hearing last month, "Haurus" said he began his illicit activities on the darknet out of profit, to "put butter in the spinach", since he was in debt.

He sold, for remuneration in bitcoins, confidential data extracted from police files to which he had access: identities, addresses, telephone geolocations.

According to the prosecution, he would have carried out 382 illegitimate searches and charged his services between 100 and 300 euros.

He could also manufacture himself or help his clients to prepare false administrative documents or false checks.

At the helm, he explained that he was no longer this "thug", who "sank for ease".

"I am not rotten at that point. I am aware of the harm I have done, it will never happen again," he told the court, describing a form of "addiction" that had him makes you "lose touch with reality".

However, he recalled that he had not sold information drawn from the intelligence base of the DGSI, "Cristina", and that he had simply used files to which all police officers have access.

His companion, who was accused of being his accomplice, was sentenced to three years, two of which were suspended but released on the count of complicity.

One of his clients, tried by his side - a man known in the field of Marseille banditry - was sentenced to three years in prison with a committal warrant "given the criminal record".

He had asked "Haurus" to give him information allowing the location of several people, some of whom were found dead.

This part of the case, still under investigation in Marseille, is worth to "Haurus" another indictment for passive corruption and criminal association with a view to committing organized gang crimes.

© 2021 AFP