Karachi case: dismissal of François Léotard's appeal

The Court of Cassation rejected Friday, June 4 the appeal of the former Minister of Defense François Léotard against the judgment of the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR) which condemned him, in early March, for complicity in abuse of social goods.

Read also: Karachi case: Édouard Balladur released, François Léotard sentenced to two years in prison

Judged alongside former Prime Minister Édouard Balladur for suspicion of secret financing of his unfortunate presidential campaign in 1995, one of the components of the sprawling Karachi affair, François Léotard, 78, was sentenced to two years of suspended sentence and 100,000 euros fine. He had been found guilty of "

" in the abuse of corporate assets, while Édouard Balladur, who was being prosecuted for the same facts and for receiving stolen goods, had been released.

According to the prosecution, François Léotard participated in the establishment of a network of intermediaries responsible for promoting the signing of arms contracts concluded with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, with abnormal remuneration conditions.

These disputed remunerations made it possible to generate retrocommissions intended to finance the presidential electoral campaign of Édouard Balladur in 1995. The intermediaries concerned and other people who took part in the organization of the fraud are the subject of legal proceedings before the authorities. common law courts.

The judgment of the Court of Justice of the Republic confirmed

The Court of Justice of the Republic is the only one empowered to try members of the government for offenses committed during their mandate. In its judgment, the Court of Cassation stressed that the former minister did not provide proof of a grievance resulting from the late notification of his right to remain silent. "

", indicated the Court of Cassation in a press release.

Suspicions of secret financing of the Balladur campaign had emerged in 2010, during the investigation into the Karachi attack committed on May 8, 2002, which claimed the lives of eleven French people from the Naval Construction Directorate (DCN) working to the construction of submarines. Still in progress, the investigation into this attack initially focused on Al-Qaeda, then explored the one - not confirmed to date - of Pakistani reprisals after the end of the payment of commissions, once Jacques Chirac was elected president. .