A plot hatched by a team of notable revengeful and rascals to pluck owners who had the misfortune to break a contract? “A tale imagined by the Public Prosecutor,” asserts Me Nicola Meier, the promoter’s lawyer, at the time of insisting on the exclusively civil character of this story of invoices. During this day of pleadings, it is undoubtedly the defense of the lawyer, accused of having been the conscious partner of a vast deception, which handles all the weapons. “Surgical strikes,” in the words of Me Yvan Jeanneret, to reduce to dust the legal reasoning of the accusation. And some deafening bombs from Me François Canonica to attack “the violence of a public prosecutor’s office which seeks targets rather than truths”.
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It is not surprising to see so much energy being spent in acquitting this lawyer who has already been subjected to “the judicial grinding machine”. His counsel points out: “This case involves a particular issue for him. He is playing his career, his right to practice. It must be on everyone’s mind. If found guilty, he will most likely be removed from the bar. ” Yvan Jeanneret sees yet another important point in the judgment which will be rendered: “The lawyer should not be placed in a regime of fear. He cannot be the cop who controls his client. To be able to do this job, he must have the benefit of a situation of presumption of confidence in what his client tells him. “
“Release the embrace”
Me Canonica takes over to portray this colleague who wears the forger’s clothes very badly. “He is a warm, friendly man, without blush and without pride. The embodiment of honesty. ” Defense dares an image that sticks to the news. That of a magistrate who presses with his knee without worrying about the discharge elements. “We could have released the embrace, but we have kept it when this one can no longer breathe.” After a series of missiles of the same kind, the first prosecutor Yves Bertossa cuts the argument and addresses the president: “Do we really have to listen to this?” The court is of the opinion that it is. It is the essence of the criminal trial.
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Enough to encourage Me Canonica, who is even more ruthless with his client’s former associates, those who have let him down cowardly and without any regard for the presumption of innocence. “I pronounce his social acquittal because I find all this disgusting.” In court, he asked for an acquittal and to say that this lawyer had only done his job. The main interested party, visibly moved to be in this room where he pleaded, will say: “The only positive point in all of this is that I can now better understand what my clients are feeling.”
Acquittal is also the conclusion of Me Valérie Pache Havel, for the boss of a general enterprise on the rout, and of Me Bertrand Reich, on behalf of the architect and now former mayor, “made vulnerable by his political activity and dragged through the mud ”. The answer will fall on Friday.
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