The State has always strived to keep justice away from the world of intelligence. The occasions on which a judge has managed to get close to him have in most cases led the executive branch to make him even more inaccessible. That is why the consequences of the Alain Duménil case for the General Directorate of Foreign Security (DGSE) are extraordinary.
This case gave rise, on October 23, to the appearance in court of Bernard Bajolet, head of the DGSE from 2013 to 2017, for “complicity in attempted extortion” and “arbitrary attack on individual freedom by a custodian.” of public power.” This emergence of justice in the affairs of the DGSE also convinced, according to information from Worldthe current head of the service, Nicolas Lerner, to eliminate the reserved affairs office, a top-secret entity that reported only to the director of the DGSE and that existed since the 1950s. In fact, they are members of this structure. who had managed, in 2016, the pressure operation on the French-Swiss businessman Alain Duménil, the origin of the judicial referral.
In March 2016, at Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle airport, while checking in for a flight to Geneva, Switzerland, Mr. Duménil was invited to follow two border police (PAF) officers for an operation of control. But, upon arriving at the PAF police station, he understands that the real objective of this control is to put him in the presence of two men dressed in civilian clothes who say they belong to the DGSE.
Unfair financial maneuvers
As recalled in the order sent to Mr. Bajolet, these two agents had asked him to reimburse a sum of “15 million euros”linked to a financial dispute, dating back to the early 2000s, between the businessman and the DGSE. Requirement that they had accompanied photographs of Mr. Duméil and his family, during stays in the United Kingdom and Switzerland.
Judge Claire Thépaut’s investigation attempted to trace the ins and outs of a case in which the DGSE considers that it has been “cheated” by Mr. Duménil for a total of 23 million euros thanks to unfair financial maneuvers. “Mr Duménil is an international businessman and a convicted criminal in France”the DGSE explained to the courts. In 2012, the latter was sentenced to six months in prison for “complicity in bankruptcy” by the Grenoble Court of Appeal, and in June 2017, in Paris, to a one-year suspended sentence for tax evasion. The interested party affirms that he never knew that it was hidden money from the services and affirms that he does not owe anything to anyone. Add submitting to the “pressures” of the DGSE for years.
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