Professor Didier Raoult, June 3, 2020, at the IHU in Marseille. – Christophe SIMON / AFP
A search was carried out on Monday in the premises of the IHU in Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône), according to information from 20 minutes, confirming information from
France Blue Provence. According to Provençal radio, around ten police officers were mobilized for this operation for which a public prosecutor also came.
Contacted by 20 minutes, Maître Brice Grazzini, lawyer of Didier Raoult confirmed the holding of this search. “This would be an investigation opened in 2018 on a
conflict of interest between the IRD (Research and Development Institute) and the presidency of the IHU, knowing that Didier Raoult is not president, but director of the IHU ”, commented the professor’s council. “I wonder about the operating mode and the timing of this operation, especially since the Court of Auditors would have intervened on this file, saying that there was no apparent conflict”, he said. added.
A report from the French anti-corruption agency in 2019
For its part, the Marseille prosecutor’s office indicates “that a preliminary investigation has been initiated since the transmission of a report from the French anti-corruption agency in 2019 aimed at the Research Institute for Development (IRD), in its financial links with the Mediterranean Infection Foundation, but also in the internal functioning of the IRD on the use of public funds for expenses unrelated to the IRD’s missions or not justified. “
“The searches carried out were carried out without difficulty and the investigation is continuing within the framework of the exploitation of the documents which were seized”, concluded Dominique Laurens, public prosecutor.