Justice. Mayor LR of Montauban sentenced to 5 years of ineligibility, must leave his post

The mayor of Montauban Brigitte Barèges (LR) was sentenced to 5 years of ineligibility with immediate effect by the Toulouse criminal court in a case of embezzlement of public funds and will therefore have to quickly leave her post. She was absent during the judgment.

This decision will take effect after notification of the prefect. A sentence of ineligibility with immediate effect for a sitting mayor is relatively rare.

Mayor for 20 years of Montauban, prefecture of Tarn-et-Garonne, Brigitte Barèges was also sentenced to 12 months in prison suspended and 15,000 euros fine. During the hearing on December 10 in Toulouse, the prosecution requested five years of ineligibility with immediate application and 18 to 24 months suspended prison sentence.

“Lack of rigor” and “confusion”

The prosecutor had pointed to a “misuse of the use of public funds” in “total opacity”. “It’s hard, because five years of ineligibility with provisional execution, that means that it is over with this mandate which has barely started”, declared Brigitte Barèges in December at the end of a hearing which had lasted more than 12 hours. She also said she “trusted justice” and hoped for an acquittal, as pleaded by her lawyers.

During the hearing, she had recognized a lack of “rigor”, even a certain “confusion”, while categorically denying any misappropriation of public funds.

The case, where she was the main implicated, takes place between 2012 and 2014. At the time, Brigitte Barèges is both mayor of Montauban and candidate for re-election to municipal. His former communications officer Jean-Paul Fourment, ousted from his post following a disciplinary procedure, tells the courts to have been paid by the community to write articles laudatory towards Ms. Barèges in The small newspaper, a local publication.

In 2015, the mayor and former deputy was indicted for “embezzlement of public funds by a person holding public authority or invested with a public service mission”. Ms. Barèges won mayoralty in 2001, ending 36 years of socialist power, after a campaign focused on the fight against corruption and insecurity. Known for her remarks deemed homophobic and xenophobic, Brigitte Barèges has always denied the charges in this case.

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