The prosecution has decided to appeal the acquittal of François Bayrou, in particular, in the case of the MoDem parliamentary assistants, announced Thursday February 8 the Paris public prosecutor in a press release.
The appeal also concerns the judgment of acquittal pronounced by the Paris criminal court against Stéphane Therou, former chief of staff of François Bayrou, and Pierre-Emmanuel Portheret, former secretary general of the UDF group at the Assembly national.
The trial which ended on Monday concerned the remuneration of parliamentary assistants of MoDem MEPs with funds from the European Parliament while these assistants worked for the benefit of the centrist party.
30 months suspended prison sentence required
In its ruling, the court considered that "no element taken from the file allows us to assert with a reasonable degree of certainty that François Bayrou had knowledge" of the alleged facts. The court thus requested the acquittal "for the benefit of the doubt".
The prosecution had requested 30 months of suspended imprisonment, a fine of 70,000 euros and three years of suspended ineligibility for the former minister.
“On February 8, 2024, the Paris public prosecutor's office appealed the judgment of the Paris criminal court of February 5, 2024 releasing Messrs. Bayrou, Therou and Portheret,” specifies Laure Beccuau.
“The prosecution contests these acquittals, considers that the facts characterize the offenses charged and that the evidence of these offenses is gathered against all the defendants,” she adds.
With Reuters and AFP
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