Former Interior Minister Claude Guéant during his trial in Paris on December 5, 2018 (AFP / Eric Feferberg)
The former Minister of the Interior Claude Guéant, imprisoned since Monday because he had not paid the money due to justice on time, paid his debt to the public treasury on Thursday and requested his release, said Sunday his lawyer, confirming information from Europe 1.
Mr. Guéant, 76, paid 292,000 euros on Thursday to pay off the debt owed to the Public Treasury, according to a slip consulted by AFP, following a 2017 conviction which the courts considered that he did not respect the obligations.
In detail, “Claude Guéant paid 133,315.95 euros to place his debt at zero” but also settled that of “one of the co-convicts (who) had not paid his full share and it is about ‘a solidarity debt therefore owed 100% by each convicted person “, according to his lawyer, Me Philippe Bouchez El-Ghozi.
According to him, this was done through loans from relatives.
Mr. Guéant immediately made a request for an adjustment of the sentence aimed at his release, for which no hearing date was set.
“This full payment makes it possible to justify an immediate release from prison”, according to Me Bouchez El-Ghozi.
Mr. Guéant was placed in detention at the Paris-La Santé penitentiary center on Monday in application of the 2017 conviction, a first for a former Minister of the Interior.
In the case of the cash bonuses of the Ministry of the Interior, the former right-hand man of Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced on January 23, 2017 on appeal to two years’ imprisonment, one of which was suspended on probation and a fine of 75,000 euros. .
He was serving this sentence – which became final two years later after the rejection of his cassation appeal – under the conditional release regime.
In early November, however, the Paris Court of Appeal revoked part of his suspension (3 months) and his parole (6 months), considering that Mr. Guéant was not making the necessary payments to pay the fine and the damages he had been inflicted on.
It is in execution of these decisions that Mr. Guéant was placed in jail for nine months, had specified to AFP Me Bouchez El-Ghozi.
The council had immediately announced its intention to seize the judge of application of sentences in order to obtain an adjustment, underlining the “worrying” state of health of his client.
gd / lbx / tes