Richard Ferrand will be able to better estimate his judicial future this Wednesday.

Suspected of having taken advantage of his functions at the head of the Mutuelles de Bretagne to allow his companion to acquire a building at a lower cost, the former President of the National Assembly will indeed know if the Court of Cassation confirms the statute of limitations in this case.

If this were retained, as advocated by the Advocate General during the hearing in June, this would logically lead to the termination of the proceedings.

Otherwise, the investigating judge would continue his investigation before deciding whether or not to refer him to court.

On the other hand, the Court will not conclude on the merits, in a case which has been pursuing this former pillar of Macronie for five years and has earned him an indictment.

A short-lived minister

60-year-old Richard Ferrand is suspected of having used his position as general manager of Mutuelles de Bretagne, from 1998 to 2012, to favor his partner, lawyer Sandrine Doucen, allowing him to buy real estate in 2011. in Brest without spending a penny.

The affair, revealed in 2017 by Le

Canard Enchaîné

, cost him his short-lived portfolio as Minister of Territorial Cohesion, barely a month after his appointment.

But she had not prevented him from being elected to the perch of the National Assembly in the fall of 2018.

The opening of a judicial investigation dates back to 2017, following a complaint from the anti-corruption association Anticor.

The former fourth character of the State is indicted two years later, in 2019, by three Lille investigating judges for "illegal taking of interest" and Sandrine Doucen placed under the more favorable status of assisted witness.

Did Richard Ferrand hide his relationship with Sandrine Doucen?

Richard Ferrand's lawyers then seized the investigation chamber of the Douai Court of Appeal, considering the prescribed facts, the deadline being three years in this case.

The judges agreed with them in March 2021: they estimate the facts prescribed either since 2014 or since 2015, that is to say three years after the signing of the lease or three years after the resignation of Richard Ferrand from Mutuelles.

In both cases, before they are reported to justice.

Anticor's appeal in cassation aims to overturn this decision.

The association believes that the limitation period begins when the facts are revealed in 2017, because they have previously been concealed.

For her, all the administrators of the Mutuelles de Bretagne were not aware of the relationship between Richard Ferrand and Sandrine Doucen at the time of the operation.

The Advocate General felt at the hearing that there was no evidence that the couple "deliberately sought to conceal" their relationship and the terms of the operation.

Policy

Richard Ferrand, Christophe Castaner... Emmanuel Macron thanks the former deputies of the majority

Policy

Who is Yaël Braun-Pivet, the first woman president of the National Assembly?

  • Justice

  • Richard Ferrand

  • Court of Cassation