The senator, whose lawyers have announced an appeal in cassation, will therefore be able to continue to sit at the Luxembourg Palace until the highest court of the judiciary has ruled on his fate.
Senator Jean-Noël Guérini, former strongman of the Socialist Party of Bouches-du-Rhône, was sentenced Wednesday, March 30 on appeal to three years in prison including 18 months suspended and five years of ineligibility for the rigging of public contracts at the end of a river survey.
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His brother Alexandre, 65, an entrepreneur in the waste sector, nicknamed “sir brother“, for the economic advantages that he knew to draw from the political influence of his eldest, sentenced him to six years in prison with a warrant of committal at the hearing. The Court of Appeal, which also sentenced Jean-Noël Guérini to a fine of 30,000 euros, specified that the sentence of 18 months in prison must be executed by the senator at his home under an electronic bracelet. On the other hand, she indicated that she was not claiming the provisional execution of the penalty of ineligibility. The senator whose lawyers have announced an appeal in cassation will therefore be able to continue to sit in the Luxembourg Palace until the highest court of the judiciary has ruled on his fate.
Originally from a small Corsican town, Jean-Noël Guérini has a total of 55 years of political life during which he was notably president of the General Council, boss of the powerful socialist federation of Bouches-du-Rhône and influential baron of the party. His indictment in this case had caused an earthquake in the PS in which several tenors had called for his exclusion. He finally left in 2014 the party of Jean Jaurès where he had been an activist since 1967 and created a new movement, the Force of 13.
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The Court of Appeal essentially confirmed the convictions pronounced at first instance, on May 28, 2021, by the Marseille Criminal Court against the two men. This, while the Advocate General, Pierre-Jean Gaury, had requested an aggravation of the sentences by denouncing the “gross dishonestyby Jean-Noël Guérini. “Jean-Noël Guérini used his functions for personal gain and contributed to discrediting an institution“, had castigated the magistrate, referring to the General Council (become Departmental Council) of Bouches-du-Rhône.
“Confirmation Conviction”
“It is a confirmatory conviction, as is this judgment. It was probably difficult for a court to decide on an acquittal after all that was said, written and done against Jean-Noël Guérini“, estimated Me Hervé Temime, one of the lawyers evoking a decision “not fair“. Sentenced for “illegal taking of interest“, Jean-Noël Guérini, 71, was prosecuted for having taken part in the vote on June 2, 2006 of a deliberation of the General Council which he chaired providing for the transfer to the urban community of Aubagne, a town neighboring Marseille , of land pre-empted two years earlier by the department for the protection of natural areas. This land would make it possible to extend a landfill center for household waste, which his brother Alexandre had just been entrusted with operating.
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Sentenced for “breach of trust, passive influence peddling and the laundering of a sum of 26 million euros, proceeds from the sale of one of his waste treatment companies, Alexandre Guérini was presented during the two trials as “the central element of the Guérini system”. He was notably accused of having used his brother’s position to put pressure on elected officials or civil servants in order to circumvent public procurement procedures, enrich himself or eliminate competitors or favor relatives.
The court also sentenced him to a five-year ban on managing and directing commercial or industrial companies and ordered the confiscation of some nine million euros that he held in various accounts. His lawyers have indicated that they will also appeal in cassation. The judges also confirmed, for the most part, the first instance sentences, ranging from 6 months to 12 months suspended and from 5,000 to 15,000 euros in fines, against four other defendants tried alongside the Guérini brothers.