Nicolas Sarkozy was placed Wednesday under the assisted witness status, beyond this stage to put a review in the case of the penalties set by his party, the UMP, after the presidential election of 2012. After his arraignment, the judges had the opportunity to review or to be placed under the status of assisted witness. This status is intermediate between that of mere witness and indicted adopted for the people on whom weigh serious or consistent evidence.
The former president had arrived shortly after 8:00 Wednesday in a black sedan the financial hub of Paris. His hearing had been postponed several times. Soon after, his former campaign manager and current prefect of Lozère Guillaume Lambert, UMP deputy Philippe Briand, who was the treasurer and a lawyer of the UMP, Philippe Blanchetier, were placed in the custody Office corruption of the judicial police (OCLCIFF) in Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine), in the case Bygmalion, bringing it on an alleged system of false invoices during the presidential election.
A large subscribe
The survey on penalties addresses payment by the UMP late October 2013, the sanctions against Nicolas Sarkozy for exceeding the ceiling – € 22.5 million – of its expenses lost during the campaign in 2012. The rejection of Auditors private UMP repayment of more than ten million campaign costs. But the Constitutional Council had also ordered the candidate Sarkozy restitution to the State of a lump sum of 153 000 euros and had imposed a penalty of 363,615 euros, corresponding to the delay recorded.
Now, the fact that the UMP for taking such costs may constitute a breach of trust because the penalties were aimed at the candidate himself and the money the party would have been misappropriated. At the time, to bail out, the UMP, heavily in debt, had launched a large subscription to its members, the “Sarkothon.”
Notice challenged
The investigating judges have already indicted for embezzlement former head of the UMP Jean-Francois Cope and treasurer of the time Catherine Vautrin. They also placed under the control status attended the former director of the party’s resources, Fabienne Liadze the old part of the UMP Jérôme Lavrilleux and Me Blanchetier.
It was on the basis of the analysis of the lawyer of the UMP that the party had supported penalties. Internally, Bercy was also interviewed on the device before confirming it. But in June 2014, this view was challenged by another lawyer, mandated by the Raffarin-Fillon-Juppé trio who had just taken the head of the UMP in place of Jean-Francois Cope, forced to resign by the Bygmalion case.
In the process, the statutory accounts of the UMP had reported the facts to the Paris prosecutor, who had opened an investigation. In early December, returned to the presidency of the UMP, Nicolas Sarkozy had resolved to repay the sum of 363,615 euros, an act that did not stop the course of the investigation.
Several other cases
Since leaving the Elysee, Nicolas Sarkozy and some of his relatives have been harassed by several cases that may become obstacles. In Bygmalion case, investigators believe they have uncovered a huge fraud: they have the belief that the UMP has assumed approximately 18.5 million euros in fees meetings in 2012, when these expenses should have enter the campaign budget.
Nicolas Sarkozy was also indicted for bribery and influence peddling active in the so-called Listens case. The judges suspect the former head of state to be tried, with his lawyer Thierry Herzog, to obtain information under the secrecy with a magistrate on duty to the Court of Cassation in the case Bettencourt, where he obtained a dismissal. However, the investigation was suspended pending the appeal court decides, May 7, on procedural nullity requests. Nicolas Sarkozy had questioned the impartiality of judges who had indicted and denounced the “will” of “humiliating” with its custody, a first for a former president.
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