It was a hurt prosecutor who presented his accusation, on Thursday, November 28, in the trial against the former head of internal intelligence Bernard Squarcini and nine other defendants before the Paris judicial court. “The prosecutor is sad to have high-ranking state officials before you today and to have spent his last days in conversations that the investigating judges described as “drug traffickers’ discussions” about the facts,” laments Hervé Tetier, referring to the semantic debates that animated the hearing about the meaning of “surveillance” and “infiltration.”
Alongside Mr. Squarcini were mainly current police and intelligence officials who responded to his requests while he worked for LVMH, as well as former senior officials who became employees or service providers of the luxury group.
The former spy chief is the common thread of this extensive procedure related to events dating from 2008 to 2016. For this reason, the prosecutor requested the most severe penalties against him: four years of suspended prison, 300,000 fines, confiscation of more than 460,000 euros seized during the investigation, prohibition of carrying out an activity linked to “intelligence, surveillance, advice and economic intelligence” for five years, with provisional execution, as well as disqualification from exercising public service for the same period. “It clearly seems that [le contrat de 2,2 millions d’euros liant Bernard Squarcini à LVMH] was intended to remunerate something other than [ses] intelligence skills, the “other thing” is influence peddling.”the prosecutor continued.
“I am affected by generalized amnesia”
These requests are all the more burdensome because “repeated” about the “collection of personal data by fraudulent means,” explains the prosecutor. Mr. Squarcini was convicted in 2014 of having requested the fadettes of a journalist from World to discover its sources.
Hervé Séveno, Jean-Charles Brisard and Albert Farhat – accused in the part of the case relating to the surveillance and infiltration of the newspaper Fakirwhile its founder, François Ruffin, today a deputy (various left) for the Somme, was working on the documentary Thanks boss! – are also the subject of strong searches for their lack of recognition of the facts. “I am struck by the general amnesia that appears to have affected a large number of defendants regarding what they sent or received. Fortunately, there are objective elements such as telephone interceptions, SMS, emails, reports and thromboscopes.explains the prosecutor. We are in the presence of intelligence professionals who know very well [ce qu’ils faisaient]. »
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