The prosecution challenged Thursday before the Paris Court of Appeal the placement under the status of witness assisted by the former European elected Robert Rochefort and requested his indictment in the investigation into the employment of MEPs assistants of the Modem.

The investigating chamber of the court of appeal will render its decision on February 3, we learned from a source close to the case.

Summoned on October 6 to be indicted by one of the investigating judges in charge of this case at the financial center of the Paris court, Robert Rochefort came out under the less incriminating status of witness assisted for "embezzlement of public funds" .

Asked about the employment conditions of three assistants

Robert Rochefort, who became MEP (2009-2019) after twenty-two years at the head of the Research Center for the Study and Observation of Living Conditions (Credoc), was asked about the employment conditions of three parliamentary assistants between 2009 and 2014.

"The investigating judge had the impartiality not to blindly follow the European Parliament, the prosecuting party, and considered that the elements of the file do not allow to say that the three assistants of Mr. Rochefort did not work for Parliament, on the contrary, ”reacted his lawyer, Me Mario Stasi.

According to a report made in April 2021 by the Anti-Corruption Office (Oclciff), in charge of investigations, the centrist party has set up an “old and more or less informal system” of embezzling European funds to pay its employees.

"To support his party and ensure its functioning at a lower cost, François Bayrou and Marielle de Sarnez, supported by party officials, have placed at the service of the UDF, then of the Modem, parliamentary assistants paid by the European Parliament" , summarize the investigators.

At least fifteen indictments already pronounced in this judicial information

During his hearing, which AFP was aware of, Robert Rochefort claimed to ignore the existence of such a mechanism.

Confronted with the documents presented by the magistrate, he admitted to having "the feeling today (...) that there could be people who were circling around (him) saying to themselves:" perhaps he has something to do with him. the money that we could use "".

“I didn't have that feeling at the time, I just knew there were political difficulties from mid-2012,” he added.

In this judicial investigation opened in 2017, at least fifteen indictments were pronounced, most of them for “embezzlement of public funds” or “complicity”.

Among the MEPs, executives or ex-executives of the targeted party are François Bayrou, Marielle de Sarnez (deceased in January 2021), the deputy Maud Gatel or the former Minister of Justice Michel Mercier.

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  • Justice

  • Modem

  • European Parliament

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