Bernard Bajolet, former boss of the DGSE from 2013 to 2017, is indicted for complicity in attempted extortion of a businessman, the courts confirmed on Tuesday. He was charged for the first time in October 2022 for complicity in attempted extortion and arbitrary attack on individual freedom by a representative of public authority. This he had contested before the investigating chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal, but it therefore rejected his request for annulment.
“Bernard Bajolet will not escape his trial, that of the misuse of a former head of a large sovereign state service for private purposes. The entire chain of responsibility has not yet been revealed,” reacted the lawyers of businessman Alain Duménil, who initiated the complaint.
An attempted racket worth 15 million euros
In March 2016, this Franco-Swiss was checked by two plainclothes DGSE agents at Roissy airport. They present themselves as the “State” and explain that it must reimburse 15 million euros to France. To support their request, they show him photos of him and his family. According to the businessman, threats are being made.
During his first appearance interrogation, Bernard Bajolet explained that he had validated the principle of an interview at the airport, but did not go into the details of its implementation. The objective was to make contact, short and without constraint, with a man considered by the institution to be elusive.
This dispute is part of a constellation of legal cases which have pitted the DGSE against Alain Duménil for more than twenty years.