The Sherpa association, which fights against economic crime, is bringing back to court an ultra-sensitive and politically inflammable case: the Rafale affair, this sale of 36 French fighter planes by Dassault Aviation to India, in 2016, on which weigh heavy suspicions of corruption, now widely documented by the Indian and French press.
According to information from World, Sherpa lodged a complaint against X with the constitution of civil party, Thursday, April 22, with the Judicial Court of Paris, for facts of “corruption and active and passive influence peddling”, “concealment of corruption, of influence peddling and favoritism ”,“ active money laundering and influence peddling ”and“ embezzlement ”.
After two unsuccessful attempts to refer the matter to the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) – a report dated October 26, 2018 closed without action, then a complaint of May 21, 2019 that went unheeded – this new offensive by the anti-corruption association aims to obtain the opening of a judicial investigation, to shed light on the conditions under which this strategic military contract at 7.9 billion euros was concluded between the French aircraft manufacturer and the government of Narendra Modi, in particular for the benefit of a friend of the Indian Prime Minister, the powerful industrialist Anil Ambani. Finalized under the presidency of François Hollande after long years of negotiations, it was piloted from the top of the State, with the economic diplomacy of the time.
Supported suspicions
While the file was already loaded with revelations, Sherpa’s complaint follows new information from Mediapart, at the beginning of April, on the payment of possible kickbacks to a sulphurous intermediary in India, already involved for money laundering in another sales case. helicopters in the country, and the very political burial of this potential ” state matter ” by the PNF and the French Anti-Corruption Agency (AFA).
“In 2018, there were strong suspicions of corruption and favoritism, but today these suspicions have been substantiated by the investigations of Mediapart and the World as well as by the action of Indian NGOs, says William Bourdon, one of Sherpa’s lawyers, who is also its founding president. The opening of a judicial investigation will finally make the investigation possible. “
In terms of law, the Penal Code allows any approved anti-corruption association declared for at least five years as Sherpa is to exercise the rights granted to the civil party, for offenses of “corruption and influence peddling” as well. than “concealment or money laundering”. A judicial investigation can be opened on the constitution of a civil party, as soon as a simple complaint has been previously filed.
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