The businessman Bernard Tapie, who appeared "very weak" at the opening of his trial on Monday, October 12, did not appear before the Paris Court of Appeal on Wednesday for health reasons, a indicated one of his lawyers.
The Court must begin to examine the facts which are reproached to Bernard Tapie, retried for “embezzlement of public funds” and “swindle” after being released in the Adidas-Credit Lyonnais case in July 2019.
Read also: Tapie arbitration: the big story of a sprawling affair
The boss of the media group La Provence is fighting, at the age of 77, against double cancer of the stomach and esophagus.
Invited Monday, September 7, 2020 on the occasion of the eloquence course of the lawyers of the Paris Bar, he spoke about his illness.
“
Your cancer cells have an enemy, it's your energy.
Because it is the energy that gives power to your immune system,
”he said.
His lawyer, Hervé Temime, told BFMTV on October 6: "
I think this is the last fight of his life
".
Despite the progression of his cancer, which attacked the skin, the esophagus, the stomach, the vocal cord and the lung, Bernard Tapie remains combative and wishes "to
attend every minute of his trial
".
He also has to deal with severe side effects while undergoing experimental treatment.
"
The treatment has significant results in terms of their effectiveness on tumors, but the difficulty is to manage to endure the consequences
", he explained in an interview with Belgian media SoirMag in August.
Tapie denies having "stolen the taxpayer"
During the hearing in April 2019, the prosecution requested a very heavy sentence against five of the six defendants, including five years in prison against the businessman, considering that there had been fraud in 2008 when the arbitration awarded him 403 million euros.
At first instance, the Paris Criminal Court had pronounced a general acquittal, considering that "
no element of the file
" allowed to affirm that the arbitration had been the subject of "
fraudulent maneuvers
".
The boss of Orange, Stéphane Richard, had also been cleared.
The appeal trial will take place and will last for five weeks.
The former boss of Olympique de Marseille faces seven years in prison and a fine of 375,000 euros for "fraud" and "embezzlement", has always denied having
"stolen the taxpayer".