He had obtained the "honorable" mention with his law thesis. Today is dishonor. Arash Derambarsh, deputy mayor of Courbevoie and known for his fight against food waste, is clearly described as a fraud by the University of Paris-1-Panthéon-Sorbonne. The university accuses him of having widely plagiarized his thesis.
Consequence: his degree in law is canceled. He who had become a lawyer thanks to this diploma risks having to rethink his future. Even if Arash Derambarsh has already announced that he is appealing this decision. “Obviously, I dispute, he storms. I appeal. All of this is implausible! "
In a forty-page document, written like a judgment, and dated July 10, the disciplinary section of La Sorbonne considers that Arash Derambarsh's thesis is "an assembly of texts published by authors other than himself and recopied according to one or more of the plagiarism procedures aimed at making the reader believe that Mr. Derambarsh is the author ”.
Plagiarism close to 100% on some pages
This thesis on police files, entitled “Police file, a legal and societal framework in a controversial environment”, Arash Derambarsh had defended in December 2015.
Three and a half years later, a "whistleblower" informs the university that the summary of the thesis is "a pure and simple resumption of the introduction of a public report relating to the police and gendarmerie files". And that, strangely, the thesis is protected by a confidentiality clause. Arash Derambarsh had made his production inaccessible to anyone for thirty years.
The "legitimacy" of obtaining this confidentiality clause appearing "questionable", the university lifted it to examine the five hundred pages signed by Derambarsh. A simple check using the Compilatio software, which detects fraudulent copies, revealed a plagiarism rate of 76% on the entire document. Rate close to 100% on "a certain number of pages".
Other versions of the thesis produced to "make up" plagiarism, according to the university
For Thesis and Synthesis, a collective engaged in the hunt for intellectual plunder, the rate rises to 92% on the four hundred pages analyzed (excluding appendices and bibliography). This is what the collective indicates in any case in an email sent to the university and published on Twitter.
We just sent an email to the president of @ SorbonneParis1 about the Derambarsh affair. pic.twitter.com/kKM13eFEFi
- Thesis and Synthesis (@These_Synthese) July 6, 2020The disciplinary procedure initiated, each line has been scrutinized. But it was necessary to examine several versions, because from the "first session of instruction", in November 2019, Arash Derambarsh submitted to the university an updated version of his thesis. A third will follow.
Hauts-de-Seine newsletter
Every morning, the news of your department seen by Le ParisienI'm registering
Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to enable you to receive our news and commercial offers. Learn more
The pages and passages deleted or reformulated reveal hacks intended "to remove the evidence of plagiarism", according to the disciplinary formation. Which concludes, scathing: “Mr. Derambarsh denies the alleged facts that he roughly attempted to disguise by presenting falsified versions. "
"Methodological errors"
For further comments, Arash Derambarsh refers to his lawyer, Me Yassine Bouzrou. “My client admits to having made errors of methodology but not of plagiarism, explains the council. Moreover, none of the people concerned by a possible plagiarism complains of such an attack. "
The penalist also attacks on another register: “The decision taken by the Sorbonne was taken without respecting the fundamental rights of Mr. Derambarsh. My client produced testimonies of his good faith, dismissed on the pretext that the witnesses would have lived in the same town as him. No court is satisfied with such an argument. "
He also points out the responsibilities of the Sorbonne: “Mr. Derambarsh was only a student, he should have been accompanied. And the college had plagiarism detection software.
The dysfunctions of the university
If Arash Derambarsh is in trouble, so is the university. The jury that granted him his doctorate was not made up of people very familiar with the subject matter. The defense report should have been drawn up and signed by the members of the jury: it cannot be found.
The disorganization of the archiving service made the thesis invisible, especially since the confidentiality clause was granted "by derogating from the normal circuit of the decision". These elements appear in the disciplinary decision but "Mr. Derambarsh benefited from the dysfunctions of the administration of the university", we read in the document, pronouncing the cancellation of the thesis defense.
Deprived of his title of doctor, Arash Derambarsh nevertheless remains a lawyer. But if the decision is confirmed on appeal, he will have to explain himself to the council of the order. He would then risk radiation.