After the rejection by the investigating committee of the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR) of the request filed by the lawyers of the Minister of Justice, this Wednesday, Eric Dupond-Moretti therefore remains indicted for “illegal taking of ‘interests,’ announced a judicial source, confirming information from BFMTV.
Suspected of having taken advantage of his function to settle accounts with magistrates when he was a lawyer, the Minister of Justice notably raised the “inadmissibility of the complaints at the origin of the referral to the CJR” and “the partiality of the prosecutor general near the Court of Cassation ”, François Molins, according to the same source.
“This refusal is not a surprise”
The investigative commission of the CJR, the only jurisdiction empowered to prosecute and judge members of the government for crimes and offenses committed “in the exercise of their functions”, also rejected its requests for cancellation of the referral to the commission. and the 15-hour search that was carried out on July 1 at the Ministry of Justice. The request had been examined on October 14.
“This refusal is not a surprise. The Court of Justice of the Republic is the only jurisdiction in France and certainly in member countries of the Council of Europe where the judges on appeal are the same as at first instance ”, reacted the lawyers of the Minister, Olivier Cousi, Christophe Ingrain and Rémi Lorrain.
“We did not hope that the magistrates, authors of the nullities that we invoked, themselves cancel the procedure vitiated by their own nullities. After this obligatory passage, we form an appeal in cassation so that finally rule by magistrates different from those who instruct ”, they added.
A first for a serving Minister of Justice
In addition, on October 26, the first presidency of the Court of Cassation rejected the request for recusal of the magistrates of the CJR responsible for investigating the case, filed by the defense of the Minister of Justice, according to the judicial source. In January, the CJR opened a judicial investigation for “illegal taking of interests” after complaints from magistrates’ unions and the Anticor association denouncing situations of conflict of interest in two cases.
Eric Dupond-Moretti is suspected of having taken advantage of his position to settle accounts with magistrates with whom he had trouble starting when he was a lawyer, which he refutes. On July 16, after six hours of questioning before the CJR, Eric Dupond-Moretti was indicted, which was a first for a serving Minister of Justice.