the prosecution appeals the acquittal of the boss of the MoDem

The Paris prosecutor’s office appealed this Thursday against the three acquittals handed down on Tuesday during the judgment in the so-called case of the MoDem European parliamentary assistants. The criminal court notably acquitted the party president, François Bayrou (as well as Pierre Portheret and Stéphane Thérou), while condemning the MoDem (formerly UDF) to a fine of 400,000 euros as a legal entity.

The first instance judges had ruled that the involvement of François Bayrou in an embezzlement of public funds, through which assistants of MEPs actually worked for the centrist party, had not been demonstrated. Their expectations, however, noted suspiciously: “It is very likely that [trois des prévenus] who committed acts of complicity in the misappropriation of public funds for the sole benefit of the party, acted with the authorization of François Bayrou and at the very least by informing him of their actions. But no proof of this authorization or this information is reported. However, in application of article 427 of the code of criminal procedure, criminal offenses must be established by evidence, even assessed according to the judges’ private conviction. In the absence of any evidence, a criminal court cannot, without disregarding the principle of the presumption of innocence, deduce the guilt of an accused from a hypothesis, even if it is plausible. It follows from the above that François Bayrou will be [relaxé]for the benefit of the doubt”.

“Totally unfounded accusations”

In a brief press release released Thursday, the prosecution retorted that, from its point of view, “the facts characterize the offenses charged and the evidence of these offenses is gathered against all the defendants” – eight other people were convicted at first instance and have had ten days since Tuesday to contest this decision.

From a general point of view, the appeal of the prosecution is not at all absurd (rather the opposite would have been surprising): its representatives had notably requested 30 months of imprisonment against Mr. Bayrou. suspended prison sentence, 70,000 euros fine and three years of ineligibility also accompanied by a suspended sentence. The judgment therefore does not satisfy the public prosecutor, who is not known for being a good loser and now intends to convince the court of the merits of its analysis. However, the political context will not fail to give rise to a thousand interpretations: François Bayrou was a little quick to congratulate himself on an acquittal which was not yet definitive. He has just refused to enter the government and created a political crisis. Some will thus be tempted to detect extrajudicial ulterior motives in what is ultimately, for the prosecution, only a routine decision.

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The councilor of Pau reacted Thursday afternoon in the press by affirming that “(his) line of defense will be the same since all the accusations collapsed during the first trial“, and that he “will face with the same combativeness“, At Point . Confident, he assures that the prosecution can “appeal, it will not hold any more the second time than the first time, because it is not true; the accusations against me are completely unfounded“. The president of Modem prefers to denounce “the considerable amount of money»: between 3 and 5 million euros in investigation, lawyer and procedural costs, for damage estimated by the courts at 200,000 euros over fifteen years, according to him. “(The magistrates) found nothing, because there is nothing.»

No date has yet been set for the appeal trial.