Saturday, November 6th, 2021
After a beating attack
Macron’s ex-bodyguard sentenced to prison
A former confidante of French President Macron is sentenced to prison for willful violence at a demonstration and other offenses. The Élysée Palace had come under massive pressure because of the allegations against the then bodyguard, Alexandre Benalla.
The former security officer of French President Emmanuel Macron, Alexandre Benalla, has been sentenced to three years in prison, including two years on probation. Benalla has to wear an electronic handcuff for a year, but not behind bars, as a court in Paris ruled.
The 30-year-old has been convicted of violence against demonstrators, forgery of documents and illegal gun possession. “You broke the trust that was placed in you,” said presiding judge Isabelle Prévost-Desprez when the verdict was pronounced. Benalla felt “invulnerable and all-powerful,” she said. He should have behaved particularly correctly and exemplary in his position.
After the three-week trial at the beginning of October, the public prosecutor’s office demanded only 18 months probation for the defendant. Benalla’s lawyer Jacqueline Laffont announced on the broadcaster BFMTV that she would appeal. Macron’s former close associate falsely pretended to be a police officer and beat up demonstrators at a demonstration on May 1, 2018. The case was made known through a video on the Internet and caused great indignation in France. Macron also came under pressure from the scandal.
Affair-strained presidency
During the trial, the public prosecutor said that Benalla acted “like the police officers and in some cases instead of the police officers.” His use was by no means necessary. The defense had argued that Benalla had only interfered as a citizen to prevent a crime. The court also convicted Benalla for illegally using two diplomatic passports and for forging a document to obtain an ID card.
At an election campaign event for Macron in 2017, he had also carried a gun without permission. Benalla later claimed it was a water pistol. The affair had weighed on Macron’s presidency for months as the Elysee Palace was suspected of covering Benalla.
The scandal was triggered by a video that showed the then 26-year-old with a police helmet and armband as he hit two demonstrators on May 1, 2018. According to the investigators’ findings, Benalla later tried, among other things, to pull himself out of the affair with the help of his contacts with the prefecture. A friend and business associate of Benalla was sentenced to two years suspended prison sentence. Two police officers who illegally sent the images of a surveillance camera to Benalla were fined 5,000 euros and each was sentenced to three months’ probation.