Victory for François Fillon and Nicolas Sarkozy. The Constitutional Council opened the way on Thursday for a possible third trial requested by the former Prime Minister in the case of suspicions of fictitious jobs and by the former President of the Republic in the case of “wiretapping”, by deciding to annul an article of law relating to a point of procedure.
In the coming months, the Court of Cassation will have to draw the consequences of this decision and could order a new trial for the former Prime Minister and the former President of the Republic, convicted on appeal in these two cases but who have filed appeals. appeals to the high court.
An article of law repealed
“For Nicolas Sarkozy, it is a great victory, a snub to the court of appeal which applied a law which is unconstitutional”, declared Me Patrice Spinosi, lawyer on the council of the ex-president, who had attached to the priority question of constitutionality (QPC) initially filed by François Fillon. During the appeal trial, the court relied on article 385 of the code of criminal procedure to reject one of the arguments of François Fillon’s lawyers concerning the impartiality of the investigation. But the former deputy for Sarthe contested the constitutionality of this provision.
After examining it at a hearing on September 19, the Wise Men repealed this article of law, considering that its provisions were “contrary to the Constitution”, because they did not respect the rights of the defense and the right to appeal. The Council specified that this repeal could be invoked in current cases, therefore that of François Fillon but also that of the “tapping” of Nicolas Sarkozy, who had joined this QPC.