"
All my life, I have been of exemplary righteousness
": ex-baron of the Marseille Socialist Party, Senator Jean-Noël Guérini affirmed Monday March 15 his integrity at the opening of the trial which earned him to appear with his Brother Alexandre for an alleged “
clientelist system
” used for their benefit.
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Shortly before 8:30 a.m., the former head of the Bouches-du-Rhône general council, from 1998 to 2015, now aged 70, arrived with his face closed, hidden behind a surgical mask, without a word, and rushed into in the courtroom as soon as it opens.
His younger brother Alexandre, a businessman in waste management, succeeded him a few minutes later, also without making a statement.
Sitting side by side in the first row of the benches of the defendants, the two brothers will appear before the Marseille Criminal Court until April 9 with nine other natural persons and a legal person, the company SMA Environnement of Alexandre Guérini.
Anonymous denunciation
In front of them, three seasoned judges, including President Céline Ballérini, must dissect the 10 parts of a sprawling case for which the Bouches-du-Rhône department, now headed by the right, was made a civil party on Monday. .
"
Illegal taking of interest
", "
breach of trust
", "
favoritism
": behind the legal qualifiers, there is "
a general misappropriation of public affairs in the service of private economic interests
", summed up the examining magistrate in its order for reference, the prosecution criticized “
a clientelist system
”.
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Starting from an anonymous denunciation, in February 2009, investigators heard from more than 150 people, 26 of whom were indicted.
But only 12 have been referred to court, some twenty parts of this case having been abandoned along the way.
Protesting his "
righteousness
" Monday at the bar, Jean-Noël Guérini also used the same words as his brother Alexandre to describe the moral values transmitted by their parents of modest origin: "
work, work, always work
" .
Asked by the prosecutor about his current relationship with his brother, the senator, whose indictment had caused an earthquake within the powerful socialist federation of Bouches-du-Rhône, claimed not to have had any relationship with him for several years. .
“
But my brother will always be my brother
” even if “
we can have differences
”.
“
It's family, it's sacred,
” he added.
Alexandre Guérini, for his part, maintains that his brother "
was not informed
" of the "
interventions
" he carried out "
in a completely disinterested manner
".
Asked at the hearing about his relationship to politics, he blurted out: "
I never had a mandate, but you can do politics without having a mandate
."
"
Mr. Brother
"
Central figure in the trial, the entrepreneur, nicknamed "
Monsieur Frère
" for his omnipresence in the department and in the Marseille Provence Métropole (MPM) urban community, then chaired by the Socialist Party, is particularly suspected of having taken advantage of his proximity to the president of the department to have several calls for tenders modified to his advantage.
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If the heads of "
criminal association
" or "
influence peddling
" have not been retained against the Guérini brothers, the eldest, still a senator, will have to explain certain decisions of the department having favored his 64-year-old younger brother, as the pre-emption of land in La Ciotat, in October 2014, officially to protect a local perennial plant.
Two years later, the land was ceded to the Garlaban-Huveaune-Sainte-Baume agglomeration community, which intended to use it to expand its garbage landfill center, itself managed by ... Alexandre Guérini.
Monday morning, the defense of Jean-Noël Guérini has rightly pleaded the prescription of the charges against the former boss of the department.
The president of the tribunal Céline Ballérini has joined her decision on this issue to the merits: it will be rendered with the rest of the judgment.
Alexandre Guérini faces 10 years in prison and a 750,000 euro fine, his older brother five years in prison and a 500,000 euro fine.
Reelected for the third time senator in September 2020, under the colors of the Force du 13, the party he created in 2014 after leaving the PS, Jean-Noël Guérini also risks ineligibility.