“Le Monde” was able to take note of the report of the lawyer’s interrogation on June 14. Indicted and placed under judicial supervision, he is suspected of having exceeded his advisory role by establishing proximity ties with Jacques Santoni, alleged chief of the Corsican band.
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More than four years of sound system and dozens of hours of intercepted conversations, around twenty indictments in the context of a judicial information opened in 2018 to the specialized interregional jurisdiction of Marseille for aggravated money laundering, non -justification of resources and associations of criminals. At the end of these investigations, the judges suspect the criminal lawyer Pascal Garbarini of having exceeded his advice role by forging proximity links with Jacques Santoni, the alleged chief of the Little Bar band, a team of Corsican thugs.
heard on June 14 at first appearance in the offices of judges Anaïs Trubuilt and Thomas Hirth, the Parisian criminalist, historic lawyer of the Little Bar band which, for almost twenty years, has imposed itself within crime Organized in the Ajaccio sector, is indicted for “participation in an association of criminals for the preparation of an offense” and placed under judicial supervision.
The report of this interrogation, which Le Monde has learned, fills 59 pages. From the outset, Pascal Garbarini protests: “suggesting that I would participate in an organized agreement is completely unacceptable and participates in the decision to deprive Jacques Santoni of an elementary right which is the choice of his lawyer.”
“I do not distribute any envelope”
According to the judges, relations between the lawyer and his client fall under complicity in the criminal sense of the term. As proof, several conversations intercepted at the Parisian home in Santoni in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020, conversations around which the name of the lawyer appears. While recalling professional secrecy supposed to protect exchanges between a lawyer and his client, Pascal Garbarini tells the two judges that he will not use “this secret that as soon as he is not necessary for the exercise of his defense “.
According to magistrates, Pascal Garbarini would not have put enough distances from Jacques Santoni, whom he has been defending since 2003. Besides, “Jacques Santoni, in this office there is A few weeks, said you were his friend (…). Isn’t that a complicated situation and even strongly advised against being his friend’s lawyer? “
“Jacques Santoni considers me as his friend, I take note, underlines Garbarini (…). As far as I’m concerned, Jacques Santoni is not part of my social circle.” And to continue: “The profession of ‘Lawyer is a difficult job. It is particularly so for criminal lawyers. I note that the exercise of our lawyer’s mission is more and more complex to exercise since certain judicial authorities consider that the lawyer is an accomplice of his client and that he would not have stature and positioning to keep his independence. By dint of considering that criminal lawyers are necessarily at one time or another, too close to their client, will end up that more and more lawyers will refuse to defend in organized crime. “
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