Chantal Arens, first president of the Court of Cassation, and François Molins, Attorney General at the Court of Cassation, in turn stepped up to the plate on Tuesday, September 29 to be alarmed at the administrative investigation opened against three magistrates of the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF).
To read also: Affair of "eavesdropping": administrative investigation against magistrates of the National Financial Prosecutor's Office
"
The magistrates are today legitimately worried about the unprecedented situation in which the institution finds itself since the Keeper of the Seals (...) seized the General Inspectorate of Justice of an administrative investigation against three PNF magistrates in charge of a procedure which had concerned him
”, wrote in a column published by Le Monde the two most senior judges of the judicial order.
Breach of the presumption of innocence
The rag has been burning between the Minister of Justice and the magistrates since he requested an investigation of PNF prosecutors, implicated for having peeled in 2014 the detailed telephone records ("
fadettes
") of tenors of the bar, including Eric Dupond-Moretti.
To read also: Éric Dupond-Moretti, the PNF and the “fadettes”: is the Justice sufficiently independent?
This measure had been ordered by the PNF to try to identify the "
mole
" who could have informed Nicolas Sarkozy and his lawyer Thierry Herzog, friend of the current Minister of Justice, that they were tapped in an investigation for suspicion. corruption of a magistrate.
"
We can only regret the violation of the principle of presumption of innocence of the magistrates concerned, mentioned by name in a press release published on September 18, even before the start of the investigations
", underlined Ms. Arens and Mr. Molins.
"
It is the responsibility of the Keeper of the Seals, guarantor of the independence of magistrates and the conditions of impartiality, dignity and serenity in which justice must be rendered, to ensure that the judicial institution is protected from all forms of destabilization
”, they insisted.
To read also: Dupond-Moretti Keeper of the Seals: "a declaration of war on the judiciary"
Chantal Arens and François Molins also criticized the recent remarks of the Keeper of the Seals who had spoken of the "
culture of self-help
" and "
corporatism which distances justice from citizens
" about the National School of Magistrates. (ENM).
Mr. Dupond-Moretti chose to appoint a lawyer at the head of the ENM.
"
Eric Dupond-Moretti made remarks that do not do justice to the quality of the training provided by this school and to the major reform it has carried out in recent years
", estimated Ms. Arens and Mr. Molins, the ENM is not "
a school folded in on itself
" nor "
a school of reproduction of the elites
".
