The Nanterre prosecutor’s office in Hauts-de-Seine on Wednesday asked for three years’ imprisonment with probationary suspension for three years, against the former Minister of the Interior Claude Guéant, tried before the criminal court for fraud concerning his expenses. 2012 legislative campaign. For his probationary reprieve, the prosecution asks him to justify his activities, to compensate the civil party (the legal agent of the State) and to settle his debts to the Public Treasury.
A refund too high according to the charge
At the time, the essential man of the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy, now 77 years old, was a candidate to be a deputy in Hauts-de-Seine. The prosecution accuses him of having knowingly reduced his campaign accounts and thus having obtained a reimbursement of more than 30,000 euros.
“The probity of future elected officials begins with the probity of the candidates who seek the votes,” said prosecutor Nathalie Foy. “Even if the sums at stake are not considerable, this situation should not be trivialized” because it “casts discredit on political life” and “undermines public confidence in the casting of votes”, she said. affirmed.
Guéant, “a leading man” in 2012
Especially since in 2012, Claude Guéant “was a leading man, an extremely powerful man”, former secretary general of the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy then interior minister. Against him, she also requested a fine of 50,000 euros and, for five years, the deprivation of his civic rights, the prohibition of public office and of being a corporate officer.
A four-page letter is at the heart of this investigation. In this letter, sent on January 3, 2012, Pierre-Christophe Baguet, UMP mayor (since become LR) of Boulogne-Billancourt and outgoing deputy of Hauts-de-Seine, announced that he would support Claude Guéant to succeed him in the National Assembly. He had attached the declaration of candidacy of the latter.
This “letter of wishes is actually a pretext letter” for “a propaganda document which will be distributed in 60,000 copies”, estimates the prosecutor, who reproaches MM. Baguet et Guéant for having sought to have this letter financed by the town of Boulogne-Billancourt. What the two defendants dispute. Claude Guéant is the subject of other criminal proceedings. “I live them very badly, I have the feeling of great injustices”, he argued on Wednesday.