Le Figaro Marseille
There were initially fourteen of them to appear in September before the criminal court for this resounding affair which had rocked the last municipal elections in Marseille. In 2020, at the heart of the campaign, and a few weeks before the final vote, the press revealed that the camp of the then LR candidate, Martine Vassal, had favored the production of 194 illegal proxies, including around fifty for residents from the Saint-Barnabé nursing home in the 12th arrondissement, some suffering from illnesses such as Alzheimer's.
Three elected officials, a nursing home director, political and community activists and a police commander were to be in the dock next September. But will some people avoid a public trial? As revealed by
La Provence
, six of them, including the director of this nursing home and the former LR mayor of the sector, Yves Moraine, had in fact requested this Thursday an appearance procedure on prior recognition of guilt (CRPC) , the
“plead guilty”
French version.
A member of the Marseille right, a lawyer by profession, Yves Moraine initially contested the facts, only recognizing an
“aggressive”
policy of collecting proxies. He finally decided to plead guilty in this case, and went to court this Thursday, alongside five others requesting the same procedure. This CRPC was to allow a conviction while avoiding a judgment during a public trial scheduled for September at the Muy barracks.
Like a doubt
Yves Moraine, like the others, however, went out into the Salle des Pas Perdus without a sentence having been pronounced against him. And for good reason: after several hours of discussion behind closed doors, the Marseille prosecutor's office surprisingly ordered the postponement of this hearing. The reason ? Justice would ultimately have questioned the legality of such a procedure for political offenses.
“The examination of the CRPC proposals for six defendants to be examined today at the Marseille judicial court was the subject of a referral at the request of the defendants and in agreement with the prosecution in order to allow additional legal research concerning the possibility of prosecuting one of the offenses (that of fraudulent electoral maneuvers) according to the CRPC procedure,
writes the Marseille prosecutor's office in a press release
. The resumption of this procedure will depend on the results of this research and the resulting legal analysis.”
“There are two reasons behind this decision,”
explains Xavier Pizarro, lawyer in particular for Yannick Ohanessian, head of the list of the left in the 11th and 12th arrondissements and civil party in this case.
First there is a legal opportunity. These are offenses which are political offenses, which traditionally cannot be prosecuted in the CRPC. And the second is perhaps questions of factual opportunity. These are very serious facts which concern public order, which affect public integrity and which, perhaps, require a public trial. All that we were told today is that there would be a postponement to a deadline which has not been set.”
“As a lawyer for civil parties, do I prefer that certain people appear in the CRPC or before a criminal chamber? I think I can say that we clearly prefer a trial
,” insists Me Laurent Michel, lawyer for Robert Assante, also a candidate in the 11th and 12th arrondissements. The trial is scheduled to take place from September 23 to 27 in the extraordinary trial room.