The Supreme Court of the Judicial Order confirmed on Wednesday the prescription of the facts which, in this case, was worth to the former president of the National Assembly an indictment for “illegal taking of interests”.
Le Monde with AFP
Richard Ferrand turns a long judicial page. In a judgment rendered Wednesday, October 5, the Court of Cassation confirms the prescription of the facts of the affair of the mutuals of Brittany, revealed by Le Canard Enchaîné in 2017 and which, for five years, parasites the political career of the former president of The national assembly. The decision should logically extinguish prosecution against the sixties, without concluding on the merits.
This intimate of Emmanuel Macron was suspected of having benefited from his functions at the head of the mutuals of Brittany, a private mutualist organization, to allow a relative to acquire a building at a lower cost. According to the survey, the ex-deputy for Finistère signed at the end of 2010, on behalf of his partner Sandrine Doucen, a compromise to buy a building, with a clause conditioning the purchase of the property to the promise of his rental by The mutuals of Brittany, of which Mr. Ferrand was the director general from 1998 to 2012.
Once this rental has been approved, Ms. Doucen had been able to finalize the transaction and borrow all the necessary funds. The premises had subsequently been renovated by the mutual organization, which benefits from public subsidies, up to 250,000 euros.
return to the foreground?
indicted in 2019 by three Lille investigating judges for “illegal taking of interest”, Richard Ferrand had seized the investigation chamber of the Douai Court of Appeal, considering the prescribed facts; A period of three years applying in this case. In March 2021, this Chamber had offered him a first judicial victory, retaining that the facts, committed between 2010, had been prescribed since 2014 (three years after the signing of the lease) or since 2015 (three years after his resignation from the mutuals) .
The anticor association was provided in a cassation, arguing for its part a “concealed offense” which would delay the prescription to the revelations of 2017. That year, already, the prosecutor of Brest had closed without follow-up a preliminary investigation , notably invoking prescription. Judicial information had then been opened in Paris, then disoriented in Lille, after the complaint with constitution of civil party filed by Anticor.
The end of the affair of the mutuals of Brittany naturally poses the question of a return to the foreground of Richard Ferrand, whose legal troubles had not affected his status as a pillar of Macronie. She still cost him her ephemeral portfolio of Minister of Territorial Cohesion, in 2017, just one month after his appointment. Elected to the perch of the National Assembly the following year, he is more discreet, while remaining very influential behind the scenes with Emmanuel Macron, since his defeat in June in the legislative elections.