The minister's lawyer, absent at the hearing, Me Patrick Maisonneuve, immediately announced that he was going to appeal this conviction.
The court was less severe than the requisitions of the prosecution, which demanded against the minister from ten to twelve months suspended imprisonment and a three-year ineligibility sentence without suspension which, he had specified at the hearing, would have entailed "automatically the ban on exercising public functions".
In delivering its judgment, the court held that Mr. Griset "had chosen to conceal a substantial part of his assets" and noted two aggravating elements: the funds in question were lodged in a French bank and he "showed proof of 'a real desire for concealment ".
In government since July 2020, Mr. Griset was the incumbent prime minister to appear before a criminal court.
He is suspected of having intentionally concealed from the High Authority for the Transparency of Public Life (HATVP) the holding of a stock savings plan (PEA) of 171,000 euros and "direct holdings" in several companies such as the Française des Jeux or Natixis.
Also in question, a sum of 130,000 euros placed in his share savings plan (PEA) and which belonged to the National Confederation of Crafts, Trades and Services (Cnams) of the North, an organization that Mr. Griset headed since 1991.
© 2021 AFP