Former Interior Minister Claude Guéant was “urgently hospitalized” on Monday to “undergo surgery”, his lawyer told AFP, making the dismissal of his trial for “fraud” even more likely. of campaign expenses which is due to open on Tuesday in Nanterre. The 77-year-old man, who was already suffering from “heart problems” contracted, during his two-month incarceration at the Health prison in Paris, “several additional severe pathologies”, assured Me Philippe Bouchez El Ghozi.
Judged for “fraud”…
Mr. Guéant had been imprisoned from December 13 to February 9, a first for a former tenant from Beauvau, and has since been granted parole. When he leaves hospital, Claude Guéant “will have to be at home for ten days, and hopes to be able to regain his full capacity in about a month”, added his counsel, who will ask Nanterre on Tuesday morning for the dismissal of his trial, scheduled for two days.
The former secretary general of the Elysée under Nicolas Sarkozy was to be tried there for “fraud” for the reimbursement of the expenses of his legislative campaign of 2012, after the distribution of a leaflet in his favor by the mayor UMP (now LR since ) from Boulogne-Billancourt (Hauts-de-Seine).
… And for “illegal campaign financing”
An offense punishable by five years in prison and a fine of 375,000 euros. The one who was also prefect and director general of the national police also had to appear before the criminal court for “illegal financing” of the campaign. Among the defendants is also Pierre-Christophe Baguet, LR mayor of Boulogne-Billancourt, for “illicit financing” of the campaign.
In this case, the prosecution accuses MM. Baguet and Guéant for having sought to have the town of Boulogne-Billancourt finance electoral propaganda expenses in support of the candidacy of Claude Guéant. What the two defendants formally contest.
In addition to this trial, the legal adventures continue for the former minister. Mr. Guéant must be retried in the Elysée polls file, after appealing his conviction, on January 21, to one year in prison, including eight months, for favoritism.
He also remains indicted in the case of suspicions of Libyan financing of Nicolas Sarkozy’s presidential campaign in 2007.
His recent incarceration at the Health was due to another case: the justice had considered that he was not making the necessary efforts to pay the sums he had been ordered to pay, in 2017, in the bonus case. in cash from the Ministry of the Interior.