In his decision made on Wednesday, he felt that the interference in the privacy of the lawyers concerned and their interlocutors was not disproportionate to the objective pursued.
In his arm of iron with the state, the lawyers’ order suffered a setback, Wednesday, November 3rd. He failed to recognize a “heavy fault” of the State in the case called “Faders” between 2014 and 2019, during which the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) exploited the detailed telephone records of several councils.
The lawyers had assigned before the first civil court of the Paris judicial court the judicial officer of the State and requested 50,000 euros in compensation for a dysfunction of the public service of justice. They were disappointed.
The PNF survey on lawyers
As part of a survey conducted between 2014 and 2019, the PNF has peeled detailed invoices (“fade”) of tenors of the Bar – including Eric Dupond-Moretti – to identify who could have informed former President Nicolas Sarkozy and his lawyer Thierry Herzog they were on listening as part of a corruption case. This survey for a violation of professional secrecy has been classified in December 2019.
The entangled by this case had pushed the former Minister of Justice Nicole Belloubet to request a report to the General Inspectorate of Justice, which, in his conclusions rendered in September 2020, had not seen any illegality In this procedure but highlighted a number of irregularities. It is in this context that the lawyers had seized justice in December 2020.
“No manifest illegality and therefore no heavy fault”
In his decision made on Wednesday, the Tribunal considered that the interference in the privacy of the concerned lawyers and their interlocutors was not disproportionate in relation to the objective pursued.
In particular, it emphasizes that telephone investigations have only worn on a “very short period”; that they were in accordance with the European law at the time as to the use of “federates”; that investigators did not put on listen to lawyers. “There was no manifest illegality and therefore no heavy fault” of the Crown, reacted the state lawyer, M e Bernard Gelon, greeting a judgment that gives “entirely satisfaction” .
At the hearing on October 6, on behalf of the lawyers’ order, M e Frédérique Baulieu had argued that there was “a serious attack caused by professional secrecy lawyers, their reputation and their image “. “There were serious dysfunctions of the public service of justice,” she argued.
Eric Dupond-Moretti, who is part of the lawyers concerned, had announced to file a complaint for infringement of privacy. He retired her in the evening of his appointment as Minister of Justice on July 6, 2020.