"Of course, we appeal the decision rendered so that a new trial is organized as soon as possible elsewhere," Thierry Fradet told AFP, confirming information from BFM Var.
"Beyond his mandates, Hubert Falco asked me to defend his honor, which he holds dear more than anything," said his lawyer, before adding that by appealing, his client "is presumed innocent". "But for all that he loses the right to exercise his mandates", consequence of his sentence of ineligibility with provisional execution by the criminal court of Marseille Friday.
The provisional execution of a sentence of ineligibility means that the sentence is applicable immediately, even in the event of an appeal by the accused.
The justice accused the mayor of Toulon, aged 75, and who is also president of the Toulon metropolis, to have continued to have lunch for free for years in the cafeteria of the Departmental Council, while he was no longer president for more than ten years, and to have benefited from meals at home and dry cleaning fees, also settled on public funds of this community.
By the same token, the elected has "totally flouted" his "duty of exemplarity", had estimated the president of the criminal court of Marseille Céline Ballerini in pronouncing his judgment.
The conviction of the strong man of the Var, former member of the party The Republicans now rallied to Emmanuel Macron, is a real earthquake for Toulon where he had been re-elected three times in the first round and where he presented himself as a bulwark to the National Rally, from which he had taken the city in 2001.
"In case of acquittal or absence of pronouncement of additional sentence of ineligibility" in second instance, "the elected representative recovers by right his mandates", in this case those of "municipal councillor and metropolitan councillor", added Me Fradet, before concluding that these were the "stakes of the future judicial appointment".
© 2023 AFP