“Everything that Philippe Bilger writes is strictly inaccurate, he made defamatory remarks”, pleaded Philippe Courroye’s lawyer, Me Olivier Baratelli, before the Lyon Criminal Court.
Political pressures
In his book “Le Mur des cons” (Albin Michel editions) published in 2019, mainly devoted to the situation of justice and its relationship with political power, Philippe Bilger affirms that Philippe Courroye would have yielded to pressure from political power, being appointed prosecutor of Nanterre in 2007, against the very opinion of the Superior Council of the Judiciary.
Philippe Bilger also criticizes the one who was an examining magistrate in Lyon, for having subsequently stifled the Bettencourt affair, by preventing the opening of a judicial investigation, and this to protect Nicolas Sarkozy. “A totally erroneous thesis”, denounced Me Olivier Baratelli.
“Personal Acrimony”
The lawyer criticized Philippe Bilger for having written his book “out of personal acrimony”, being the brother of Pierre Bilger, former CEO of Alstom, convicted of misuse of corporate assets following an investigation by Philippe Courroye . Me Baratelli also asked the judges for the judicial publication of the conviction in two national daily newspapers.
“All this does not come out of the hat, does not come out of Philippe Bilger’s spirit of revenge,” replied the lawyer for Albin Michel, citing multiple portraits that appeared in the press of the current attorney general at the court. call from Paris.
“We have the right to speak ill of Courroye”
“We have the impression of going back several decades: Mr. Courroye is suing for censorship”, estimated for his part Me François Saint-Pierre, defender of Philippe Bilger.
For the lawyer, the honorary magistrate’s book is a matter of free criticism and freedom being “total, even if the remarks are insulting, defamatory, we have the right to speak ill of Courroye”. “Justice has been insulted, manipulated under Nicolas Sarkozy’s five-year term, and unfortunately magistrates have lent a hand,” he added.
Judgment will be delivered on June 21.