After a very dense process, which took place this Thursday, December 10 at the Toulouse Criminal Court, the public prosecutor requested between 18 and 24 months suspended prison sentence, a fine of 15,000 euros, and a five-year ineligibility sentence against the mayor Les Républicains de Montauban Brigitte Barèges.
He also asked theprovisional execution of these sentences, which means that if the court decides to follow the prosecutor’s requisitions, the sentence will come into force immediately. Brigitte Barèges can then be dismissed of his duties as mayor, just a few months after his municipal re-election.
A case that dates back to the municipal elections of 2014
The mayor of Montauban was on trial for embezzlement of public funds and fictitious employment at the town hall of Montauban, a case that dates back to 2013-2014, a period when Brigitte Barèges was both mayor and candidate for municipal elections.
She is then suspected of having used the money of the town hall for her personal campaign in the elections, thanks to a fictitious employment system. It consisted in paying a municipal agent to write in a local newspaper, the Small Journal, laudatory articles on the work of the mayor, then a candidate and in the race for his re-election. A illegal practice, since it amounts to promoting a candidate with the money of the municipality.
A trial animated by many actors
The trial was very dense due to the presence of many protagonists. Four defendants were heard: first Brigitte Barèges and her ex-communications officer, whose exchanges were electric during the hearing. Ten to twelve months suspended prison sentence were required against this former communications officer, prosecuted for concealment of embezzlement.
Also at the helm, the then chief of staff, accused of having been complicit in the embezzlement of public funds through the recruitment and organization of the missions of the communications officer. The public prosecutor did not support the accusation against him, due to a lack of elements in his file.
Finally, among the defendants, we also counted the director of Small Journal, where the famous disputed articles were published. Between 10 and 12 months suspended prison sentence and a fine of 5,000 euros were required against him.
Three witnesses, requested by Brigitte Barèges, also presented themselves at the bar: Thierry Deville, deputy to the town hall, Didier Lallemand, former director general of services, and Laurence Got Villier, former employee in charge of the communication services of the town hall.
On the bench civil parties, opposition elected officials, including Arnaud Hilion, unsuccessful candidate for municipal elections in 2020. At the start of the hearing, two Montalbanais also came forward to become a civil party in the case.
The trial therefore opened with a procession of characters in attendance, which made the debates complex, lively, and sometimes heated throughout the audience.
Political communication or institutional communication?
At the heart of this trial, displayed on the big screen in the courtroom, articles written by the municipal agent singled out for fictitious use. And around these publications, a question: were they propaganda articles on behalf of candidate Barèges, or infomercials on behalf of the town hall of Montauban, dedicated to promoting the actions of the municipality?
And this is the first case which mainly occupied the judges. The author of these articles was therefore questioned at length, on his hiring as a communications officer, but also on his activist publications in the columns of the Petit Journal. At the helm, the defendant declares that he made no difference between political communication and institutional communication, between promoting the actions of the mayor and the candidate. “I was not aware of my mistake. Writing for the town hall, or writing for the candidate, for me it was the same thing”.
Brigitte Barèges castigates a political plot
The speech of the ex-communications manager is hesitant, a little confused, the dates are mixed up, the circumstances of his hiring are confused. The only constant in his words are the references to Brigitte Barèges. According to him, it is she who orders the articles from him, it is she who rereads them and validates them, it is even she who suggests that he take a nickname, so as not to duplicate the articles in the Small Journal and press releases from the town hall.
Brigitte Barèges, for her part, endeavored to minimize links that she had with her former communications manager. “It’s wrong”, she repeated sharply during the hearing, sometimes cutting off the other defendants, the president, or the prosecutor. “It’s not the truth, and I’m tired of having to question my integrity” pleaded the mayor of Montauban.
According to her and her defense, this municipal agent was subjected to pressure from elected opposition officials at the time. He would then have been encouraged to turn against the mayor and denounce an illegal system. The mayor of Montauban pointed to a political instrumentalisation of the case. For her, it is a cabal, without legal basis.
The deliberation of the judgment will take place on February 9, 2021 at 2 p.m.
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