On Tuesday, the Court of Justice of the Republic rejected several requests by Eric Dupond-Moretti (Minister of Justice), who was indicted for illegal taking of interests since July 2021.
The lawyers of the Keeper of the Seals seized Celine Parisot from the CJR's investigation committee. They refused to hear Celine Parisot (president of the Union Syndicale des Magistrates, USM), who was one of the unions that were the source of the Anticor complaints. This was in order to denounce conflict of interests situations in two cases. Henri-Claude Le Gall (retired honorary magistrate, former president of CJR) was also turned down by her. The same investigative committee asked her for her opinion about the process to be followed in relation to nullity requests made by the minister.
The commission was also seized of a request to annul the procedure of indictment. However, it did not grant it.
"These are expected decisions that are in line with 'jurisprudence" adopted by the investigating panel in this case," AFP Mes Christophe Ingrain, Remi Lorrain, lawyers for minister, said. They added that they would challenge the Court of Cassation. Mid-April saw the conclusion of investigations by the CJR magistrates in this case.
The Attorney General at Court of Cassation Francois Moulins, representing the public ministry, requested that the minister be tried. He ruled that there were not enough charges against him. The minister, who joined the government in 2020, was reappointed to Chancellery in May by Emmanuel Macron. He is accused of taking advantage of his position to settle disputes with magistrates with which he had problems since he was a lawyer with two files.
The first concern the administrative investigation that he ordered against three magistrates from the National Financial Prosecutor's Office in September 2020. They were all former clients of his. The second accuses him of initiating administrative proceedings against Edouard Levrault (an ex-client) who was a former investigator judge.
Eric Dupond-Moretti denies the facts and claims that he only followed the advice of his administration. He refused to answer the questions of the CJR magistrates when he was summoned to a re-examination in March and April.
The Court of Cassation's public prosecutor closed another USM complaint at the beginning of May. It claimed that the minister had intervened in the "management of the Cayenne Court of Appreciation", presided over by Marie-Laure Piazza. However, a "serious event" had occurred in 2016, when he was a lawyer. The Department of Justice stated that a slanderous lawsuit would be filed against the minister after this complaint was made public. Eric Dupond-Moretti's entourage claims that this was not the case.
