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Nanterre (AFP) – An investigating judge in Nanterre has dismissed the investigation against the former right-wing figure Michèle Alliot-Marie, indicted for illicit interest-taking in the context of an investigation into subsidies paid to an association in Saint-Jean-de -Luz when he was elected municipal, AFP learned on Tuesday from sources familiar with the matter.
The magistrate informed the parties in the spring of the end of judicial information. It is up to the Nanterre prosecutor’s office to formulate its final indictment, before a final decision by the investigating judge.
The case dates back to 2012. At the time, the Bercy anti-money laundering unit filed a complaint about suspicious movements of funds between the Saint-Jean-de-Luz tourist office and the Chantaco hotel, managed by Mrs Alliot- Her father of Marie, Bernard Marie, former deputy and mayor of Biarritz, who died in 2015.
The Nanterre prosecutor’s office opened a judicial inquiry in 2013, targeting Bernard Marie but also his daughter, who was mayor of Saint-Jean-de-Luz from 1995 to 2002 and who then resided in Neuilly-sur-Seine, in the Hauts- de-Senna.
During the investigation, the investigators also identified grants paid each year by the municipality of Saint-Jean-de-Luz to an association, the Volunteer Foundation, through the city’s tourist office.
The essential role of this association is the organization of the Festival of young directors of Saint-Jean-de-Luz, chaired by Bernard Marie.
Between January 2010 and October 2012, this association allegedly recorded in its bank account credit flows of more than 260,000 euros originating, in particular, from the Tourist Office of Saint-Jean-de-Luz, also subsidized by the municipality .
Each year, the association notably receives 25,000 euros from the town hall. However, between 2009 and 2013, the date of the last edition of this festival, Ms Alliot-Marie was deputy mayor, in addition to her duties as Keeper of Seals and then Minister of Foreign Affairs.
The MAM, now 76 years old, thus participated “in person or by proxy” in the votes relating to the budgets, financial accounts and objective conventions of the city’s Department of Tourism.
The justice then accuses him of having subsidized an association that worked for his father, which his lawyers have always disputed.
In November 2020, they notably obtained a reduction in the period of facts, after a decision of the investigation chamber of the Court of Appeal of Versailles, which indicated that the investigating judge “had not been invested with facts of illegal interest that could have been committed in 2013”.
Contacted by AFP on Tuesday, his lawyers Christophe Ingrain and Rémi Lorrain declined to comment.
© 2022 AFP
