At the Paris judicial court,
It was not until the last day of the trial that Alexandre Benalla made this “confession” to the president. Visibly moved, the former Elysee mission manager confides that he has never lost the mobile phone that the investigators asked him to do, as he still swore a few days ago at the bar. Invited to speak one last time, the former collaborator of Emmanuel Macron, who is judged among other things for his actions during the demonstration of May 1, 2018, pleaded, Friday, “the error of judgment”.
“I always wanted to do well, I had a desire to be of service, to be at the service”, he assures, while acknowledging that he should have “stayed in his place”. He hopes that the civil parties “will be able to bounce back quite quickly”, and apologizes to the “thirty people who were stranded in the Benalla shipwreck”.
Thursday, the public prosecutor had requested against him 18 months of suspended sentence, ten years of prohibition of carrying a weapon, five years of prohibition to exercise a public function and 500 euros of fine. His lawyer, Me Jacqueline Laffont pleaded today, for nearly four hours, the release for all prosecutions, with the exception of the use, recognized, of diplomatic passports by the defendant after his dismissal from the Elysee Palace. “We tried to build a character, to pass him off as what he is not,” she assures us. I am not saying that he is perfect, that he did not have a form of youth, of ardor. He was great for a whole lot of things, a lot of people said that. “
“He thought he was doing the right thing”
“We tried to add small pebbles to make a big one,” argues the criminal. To the president, Isabelle Prévost-Desprez and the two assessors, she asks not to “judge a symbol”, and to stick to “the facts”. “We tried to add small pebbles to make a big one. “The reality is that there is no willful violence on the part of Alexandre Benalla” on May 1, 2018, both in the Jardin des Plantes and in the Place de la Contrescarpe.
“He thought he was doing the right thing” by trying to help the police “for two arrests”, as article 73 of the code of criminal procedure authorizes according to her. His presence as an observer was not a secret. At the Paris police headquarters, everyone “was informed of his presence”.
Regarding the selfie affair, Me Jacqueline Laffont recalls “the position” of her client: in this photo, it is a factic weapon pointed at the head of a waitress who works in a restaurant in Poitiers where the candidate’s team Macron had spent the evening. Admittedly, Alexandre Benalla had, at the time, Glocks “quite regularly for a long time”. But those present that evening “never saw Alexandre Benalla with a weapon”.
Moreover, underlines the lawyer, he could not have transported her because he took the plane or the train to move during the campaign of the candidate of LREM. Where does it come from then, this weapon? The mystery remains. Finally, Me Laffont tried to convince the magistrates that Alexandre Benalla had not written a false document to obtain a service passport.
“A parenthesis” in an “exemplary 45-year journey”
Earlier in the afternoon, Vincent Crase’s lawyer, Me Christian Saint-Palais, pleaded for his client to release her on all the facts, except for having carried a weapon on May 1, 2018. ” This criminal offense is only a parenthesis of a few minutes “in an” exemplary and quality 45-year career “, observes the penalist who describes a” rigorous “man,” in whom we can trust “. And who has never violated a demonstrator, then.
The advice of the last two defendants, also pleaded for release. Maxence Creusat, 34, is a “young commissioner caught in spite of himself in the whirlwind of what has been called the Benalla affair,” explains Me Pauline Ragot. The next day, he also reported his “bullshit”, recalls the lawyer who says that his client obeyed an “order”. He thought that Alexandre Benalla was an “authorized person” to consult the images coming from the surveillance cameras, adds Me Thibault de Montbrial, his second counsel.
Me Maisonneuve, Laurent Simonin’s lawyer, told him that the police officer “was not aware” of the origin of the images contained in the CD-ROM given to Alexandre Benalla on July 18, 2018. “There is no such thing as any. document, email, SMS or testimony ”which proves it. The court reserved its decision until November 5.