An investigation was opened for “endangering the lives of others” in October 2020 after the complaint of a non-commissioned officer denouncing the storage conditions of ammunition and explosives of the GIGN, said Monday a requested judicial source by AFP, confirming information from Mediapart. In a complaint with the constitution of civil party filed on June 27, 2019 at the Paris judicial tribunal, a head marshal of the Intervention Group of the National Gendarmerie (GIGN) denounced the mismanagement of the GIGN stock, including ammunition and explosives, according to Mediapart who revealed the facts.
Member of the “assault stripping” cell (CDA) of the elite intervention group of the gendarmerie, the official also spoke of the conditions of an orderly destruction after the arrest in November 2017 in Spain of three members of the GIGN in irregular possession “of numerous smoke plaster grenades, detonators, ammunition” from this stock, relates Mediapart.
A report in June 2018
The non-commissioned officer had chosen this procedure, which almost systematically leads to the opening of a judicial investigation and the appointment of an investigating judge, after the classification of a first complaint filed with the General Inspectorate of the Gendarmerie national (IGGN) in August 2018. In June 2018, the gendarme had also made a report under Article 40 of the Code of Criminal Procedure allowing any authority or any official to report to justice a crime or an offense brought against him. knowledge, according to the investigative media.
Heard in November by an investigating judge as part of this judicial investigation, the former commander of the GIGN (2017-2020), Laurent Phélip, was placed under the more favorable status of assisted witness for “endangering” others by manifestly deliberate violation of a regulatory obligation of safety or prudence, ”according to Mediapart. This information has not been confirmed from a judicial source. Contacted, the lawyer for Laurent Phélip, now director of the specialized command for nuclear security (Cossen), did not respond.
According to Mediapart, the head marshal had repeatedly reported to his hierarchy dysfunctions in the storage of weapons and ammunition within the GIGN. He “was the subject of an automatic transfer two months after his statements to the IGGN”, indicates the media. Contacted by AFP, the gendarmerie did not react immediately.