An extraordinary file. Hélène Gerhards, a magistrate of the Agen Court of Appeal, in Lot-et-Garonne, will be presented to an investigating judge this Friday with a view to her indictment, for eleven counts including influence peddling and embezzlement of public funds.
At the end of a judicial investigation opened for a total of 20 counts, the prosecutor, Damien Martinelli, requested the indictment of the magistrate in the context of a file on her supposed links with an alleged member of Corsican banditry when she was in office in Corsica, between 2010 and 2016. Her lawyers denounce “an operation of destruction”.
Telephone interceptions
“In the light of telephone interceptions”, it appeared that this magistrate, assigned after Corsica to the Toulouse public prosecutor’s office, “appeared to be in a close relationship with an individual very unfavorably known to the police services, particularly regarding work in a villa of which she was the occupant, located on the south bank of Ajaccio,” wrote the prosecutor, who requested her placement in pre-trial detention.
According to sources close to the case, the individual in question is Johann Carta, indicted and imprisoned in several investigations, notably in December 2023 in an investigation opened for “fraud, extortion of funds and money laundering in an organized gang” by the Specialized Interregional Jurisdiction (JIRS) of Marseille. “Also in regular contact with other people known to the police services (…), the magistrate seemed to maintain a great proximity made in particular by reciprocal services,” adds the magistrate.
The required charges are: forgery of public documents by a holder of public authority, use of forgery, embezzlement of public funds by a person holding public authority, use of the services of a person carrying out hidden work in an organized gang , passive and active influence peddling, criminal association with a view to preparing a crime or an offense punishable by 10 years of imprisonment and with a view to preparing offenses punishable by five years of imprisonment, money laundering, construction without a permit, embezzlement of the purpose of personal data files and finally complicity in violation of professional secrecy.
On Thursday, the lawyers of this magistrate questioned, in a press release, “about a possible settling of scores within the judiciary”: according to them, their client would be “the victim of a destruction operation in which the judicial authority allows all the shots.”