• Alexandre Benalla, 30, has been on trial since Monday for having assaulted and arrested demonstrators on May 1, 2018, while following the police as an observer.

  • He is also accused of having illegally possessed a firearm which he exhibited in a photo revealed in the press, and for having continued to travel with diplomatic passports several months after his dismissal.

    He faces up to seven years in prison and a 100,000 euros fine.

  • This Tuesday, the president of the court, Isabelle Prévost-Desprez, tried to understand what role the defendant played within the Elysee Palace and did not hesitate to confront him with his lies during the investigation.

At the Paris judicial court,

"It's like digging the hole to get into it." The questions of the president of the court, Isabelle Prévost-Desprez, put in difficulty Alexandre Benalla this Tuesday. Judged in particular for having violated demonstrators on May 1, 2018, the former Elysee mission manager, yet very sure of himself since the start of his trial, was “upset” when the magistrate implied that 'he was lying about certain elements of the file. And especially concerning the disappearance of the cell phone he used to warn the Head of State that a video of him was circulating on the Internet.

The defendant had indeed explained to investigators that he had lost the device.

“I found him when I got out of custody.

It is not a question of lying ”, assures Benalla today, dark suit and light tie.

“Everyone has their own conception of lying,” retorts the president, who pushes him to his limits.

And the latter, can "convinced" by her explanations, to add: "Here we can lie, but when it gets stuck, it gets stuck.

"

"What's with that phone?"

"

For her, it is logical to think, on reading the file, that he "concealed this cell phone, its contents within the framework of this investigation". The defendant, who considers this part of the case "ancillary", gets angry. "What's with that phone?" "Dry response from Isabelle Prévost-Desprez:" We do not debate, I'm asking you. Alexandre Benalla recovers, says that he does not "understand the relationship between the telephone and the manifestation of the truth". “It's like the safe, it doesn't matter. "

Benalla explains that he gave a copy of the backup of this phone to the examining magistrate ... but that in February 2019, observe this. "You are going to release the text messages that interest you, because there are others that you do not want us to see," the president suspects. The defendant's lawyer, Me Jacqueline Laffont, comes to his rescue and explains that he was afraid, at the time, that confidential messages would end up in the press.

Benalla used this phone to alert Emmanuel Macron who was then traveling in Australia.

Why did he not warn his supervisor instead of the May 1 incident?

"I saw no need [to do it] from the moment I had warned the main person concerned", namely the President of the Republic.

A story of "loyalty".

"You do not care about the hierarchy, it is you who decide", considers on the contrary the judge.

"A great player between the lines"

The president tried, at the beginning of the afternoon, to understand what role the defendant played within the Elysee Palace. And despite the explanations of the principal concerned, a vagueness remains. One thing is certain, according to him: "I had no security function of the President of the Republic within the Elysee Palace", "I was not the bodyguard of the President of the Republic, it was not my function ”.

He presents himself rather as a "conductor" during the travels of the president, one of the privileged points of contact of the police headquarters with the Palace, a "facilitator".

Commissioner Maxence Creusat, also warned, explains it better than the main person concerned: “In these functions it is the place you occupy that counts.

You have to know how to play between the lines.

Mr. Benalla was a great player between the lines.

The trial of Alexandre Benalla is to last until October 1.

He faces up to seven years in prison and a 100,000 euros fine.

Follow the trial live on the twitter account of our journalist @TiboChevillard

Justice

Benalla case: the former collaborator of Emmanuel Macron in the face of justice

Justice

Benalla case: "What is certain is that it is a dummy weapon", says the former Elysée mission manager

  • Elysium

  • Justice

  • Police

  • Trial

  • May 1

  • Emmanuel Macron

  • Alexandre benalla