BERTRAND GUAY / AFP
Olivier Dussopt photographed at the National Assembly on February 28.
JUSTICE – The information came just a few minutes after the acquittal of Minister of Justice Éric Dupond-Moretti, in his trial for illegal taking of interests. Ten months of suspended imprisonment and a fine of 15,000 euros were requested this Wednesday, November 29 against another minister, this time that of Labor, currently on trial for favoritism.
Olivier Dussopt has been on trial since Monday before the Paris criminal court for communicating privileged information concerning a call for tenders in 2009, for the benefit of the water treatment group Saur, when he was a deputy and PS mayor of Annonay. (Ardèche).
No penalty of ineligibility required
Casting serious “failures” At “duty to set an example” elected officials in the hope of a “political gain”and facts which contribute to “degrade confidence in institutions, weaken the republican pact”the national financial prosecutor’s office (PNF) did not require a penalty of ineligibility against Olivier Dussopt, “in view of the age of the facts”.
He also requested an eight-month suspended prison sentence and a fine of 15,000 euros against Olivier Brousse, former general director of Saur, prosecuted for complicity in favoritism.
Against this drinking water supply and wastewater treatment company, prosecuted for concealment of favoritism, the PNF demanded a fine of one million euros and a suspended exclusion from public contracts, for a period of three years.
Two documents discovered during a search
The three defendants are being prosecuted for “break of equality between the candidates” during the award of the drinking water operation contract for the town of Annonay, in December 2009.
“Saur simply assisted the mayor to help him shape future public markets”while Olivier Dussopt delivered himself “to a real establishment of tailor-made criteria” for the benefit of this society, estimated Jean-Baptiste Bougerol at the start of the two-voice indictment of the PNF.
The prosecution is based on two documents, discovered during a search in August 2020 at the Ardèche home of Olivier Dussopt, as part of the preliminary investigation opened in May 2020 after an article in Mediapart.
The first, the report of a meeting between Olivier Dussopt and Olivier Brousse at the end of July 2009, three months before the publication of the call for tenders for the contract concerned. The second, an email sent shortly after by the PS deputy mayor to municipal services, requesting the modification of several clauses in the specifications of the call for tenders, and the reduction of the importance given to the price criterion in the evaluation of candidates’ offers.
After the meeting at the end of July, “Olivier Dussopt left with a shopping list on the requirements that Saur had” then has “set the municipal services in motion to translate concretely” these requests in the specifications, analyzed the second prosecutor, Julien Augereau.
The hearing, suspended, must resume in the afternoon with the defense pleadings.
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