She had been stripped of her mandate in February, following her conviction at first instance for “embezzlement of public funds”. Tuesday, December 14, the former mayor of Montauban Brigitte Barèges (Les Républicains) was finally released by the Toulouse Court of Appeal.
The court did not follow the requisitions of the public prosecutor, who had requested, on October 28, six years of ineligibility and twelve months of suspended imprisonment, arguing “established facts” and ensuring that “The court will have no problem proving Mr.me Bareges ».
Figure of the right in Occitania, the dismissed mayor of Montauban immediately announced her intention to become the city councilor of this town of 60,000 inhabitants which she had torn from the left in 2001. “Seven years of trial, two days in police custody, seizure of bank accounts, I will forget all that, but not everything. The most terrible will have been the provisional execution. of the decision, said Mr.me Barèges during a press conference at the Montalban town hall.
Those who succeeded him in February, Axel de Labriolle as mayor and Thierry Deville at the head of the agglomeration community of Greater Montauban, announced their resignation, to allow him to resume these two mandates. Votes have yet to take place in both assemblies, where the formation of Mme Barèges has the majority.
She accuses her opponents
In February, the Toulouse court imposed a five-year ineligibility sentence, twelve months suspended prison sentence and a 15,000 euro fine, considering that the “political communications” of Mme Barèges had been financed with “public funds”. Mme Barèges was immediately dismissed from her mandate at the head of the town hall of Montauban, the appeal not being suspensive in this case.
Mme Bareges, also a deputy from 2002 to 2012, denounced the political motivations of her opponents to explain the complaints against her. “They couldn’t win at the ballot box so (…) they destroyed a person, because they are unable to win a city (…). She trusted, she hoped for justice., reacted on Tuesday his companion, Pierre Terme, after having learned of the judgment of the Court of Appeal.
Complimentary Items
The case, where she was the main respondent, took place between 2012 and 2014. At the time, Mme Barèges is a candidate for re-election to the municipal elections. His former communications officer, Jean-Paul Fourment, ousted from his post following a disciplinary procedure, declares to justice that he has been paid by the community to write laudatory articles with regard to Mme Bareges in The small newspaper, a local publication.
As a result, she was indicted in June 2015 for “embezzlement of public funds by a person holding public authority or entrusted with a public service mission”.
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