A family matter. Kader Arif, former socialist minister, was sentenced on Wednesday to a suspended one-year prison sentence by the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR) for having had a public contract awarded in 2014 to a company managed by his brother. This relative of François Hollande, in charge of the portfolio of Veterans in the Ayrault then Valls governments, between 2012 and 2014, will also have to pay a fine of 20,000 euros.
The offending contract, concluded without competition by the Ministry of Defense in March 2014, concerned six “media training” sessions, only one of which was finally honored, for a total amount of 60,000 euros. All Access, the company that landed him, was run by the minister’s brother without his name appearing in the documents.
“An injustice” for his lawyer
“Eight years of waiting and at the end of an injustice”, commented one of Kader Arif’s lawyers, François Cantier, after the announcement of the decision. “If Mr. Arif was really guilty of the acts he is accused of, the sentence is very light. There were certainly strong hesitations on the central question of guilt, ”he analyzed.
Last Thursday, the prosecution had requested a two-year suspended prison sentence, a 15,000 euro fine, as well as a ban on exercising public functions for five years. She had castigated “a conception of the State which is not acceptable”, despite the “modest” amounts at stake. The former minister had refuted at the bar any desire to “cheat”, ensuring that he did not know not the role of his brother in the company selected for the contract.
Kader Arif, long time boss of the PS in Haute-Garonne, is now retired and withdrawn from public life.