They were heard in May as part of the survey conducted on the conditions of employment of MEP assistants in rebellious France.
Le Monde with AFP
Two former parliamentary assistants of Jean-Luc Mélenchon in the European Parliament were placed in May under the intermediate status of witness assisted in the judicial information carried out in Paris on the conditions of employment of assistants of MEPs of France Insoumise (LFI), learned the agency France-Presse (AFP) of sources close to the file, Tuesday November 15.
Laurent Maffeïs and Aigline de Causans, parliamentary assistants of Jean-Luc Mélenchon between 2009 and 2017, were questioned by the investigating judges responsible for these investigations respectively on May 13 and 16, according to these sources. These are the first people and the only ones to date to have been heard by the investigating magistrates since the opening of this judicial information in November 2018. They were summoned in order to be heard under the status of witness assisted for embezzlement of public funds , concealment and whitening of this offense, as well as confidence and concealment.
“We benefit from the status of assisted witness in this file, an intermediate status indicating that there is no serious clue and concordant against my clients, reacted their lawyer, Jade Dousselin. After almost five years of large -scale investigation and investigations, we can only congratulate ourselves on the placement under this status which shows that it could not be established any element of incrimination against Mr. Mélenchon and his parliamentary assistants. “
If they are not indicted later, its customers cannot be referred to the court for a trial. The Paris prosecutor’s office opened in 2017 a preliminary survey on the conditions of employment of LFI MEPs following a report by the European deputy Sophie Montel, then a member of the National Front. This procedure had been entrusted to investigating judges from the financial center of the Paris judicial court in November 2018.