By canceling a decision of the Court of Justice of the Republic, the Court of Cassation revives the debates on a possible hearing of François Molins as a witness.
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The Minister of Justice, Eric Dupond-Moretti, has just won a Channel in the Iron Arm which opposed the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR) since its indictment, in July, for ” illegal taking of interest “. The Court of Cassation decided on Tuesday, December 21, to cancel a judgment taken by the CJR Training Committee on 16 September. This judgment confirmed the decision, taken by the CJR a month earlier, to refuse to hear as a witness the Attorney General near the Court of Cassation, François Molins, in the Minister’s proceedings.
According to the Court of Cassation, which does not pronounce on the merits, the CJR’s investigation commission responded irregularly, on the form, the objections of the defense, which pointing the procedural difficulties posed by the various functions Statutory of François Molins in this case: he is at the same time Attorney General near the Court of Cassation and representing, as such, the Prosecution to the CJR and President of the Higher Council of the Judiciary (CSM). The Minister of Justice can therefore once again challenge the decision of the Training Committee. The question of the hearing of François Molins, who appeared to be dismissed, will therefore be again asked.
“This is a first judicial victory for Eric Dupond-Moretti and a real camouflet for the Court of Justice of the Republic. By considering competent on appeal to decide, in the same composition, an appeal against his own decision The CJR committed a coarse legal error. The Court of Cassation reminds him by censuring his decision, “rejoices the Minister’s lawyer, Patrice Spinosi, after the announcement of the decision. “For the moment only the CJR ruled on the need to hear as a witness his prosecutor. However, as anyone, Eric Dupond-Moretti is entitled to a double degree of jurisdiction. (…) Less than Justice for the Minister of Justice? This is the paradox of the CJR’s anachronistic instruction procedure to which Eric Dupond-Moretti has to face, “he adds.
Very political procedural guerrilla
This decision is the ultimate development of a drawer case, mounted in a very political procedural guerrilla. Everything started in June 2020, after the revelation by the existence of a survey conducted by the National Financial Procuratoration (PNF), between 2014 and 2019, to find who had informed Nicolas Sarkozy of his placement on listening in a Other procedure. Eric Dupond-Moretti, like other lawyers, had, on this occasion, given his telephone invoices peeled by the PNF. Denouncing “Barbouzeries”, he had filed a complaint, withdrawn after his appointment in the Castex government in July 2020.
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