He was at the heart of a major political storm of the Macron five-year term: the Paris court ruled on Friday, November 5 in the afternoon on the fate of the former Elysee mission manager Alexandre Benalla, pursued in particular for violence on May 1, 2018. During the trial in September, the prosecution requested eighteen months suspended imprisonment against the former close collaborator of Emmanuel Macron and sentences of two to twelve months suspended against three other defendants.
Read alsoAlexandre Benalla assumes his acts of violence
In this case, the one who is now 30 years old and converted into the private sector appeared for twelve offenses, including
“meeting violence”
and
“interference with the function of a police officer”
during the Labor Day 2018 demonstration. in the capital. Verbose at the helm, Alexander Benalla assured being
"legit, loyal, honest"
and challenged any
"voluntary violence"
, saying he wanted to
"challenge"
the
"aggressors police"
.
The project manager had been identified by the newspaper
Le Monde
on July 18, 2018 on a video in which he appeared, with a helmet of the police, brutalizing a woman and a man, place de la Contrescarpe in Paris, at the end of a day of May 1st enamelled with violence.
A member of the presidential cabinet, the 26-year-old young man was integrated into the police force that day as a simple observer.
The article had triggered a political earthquake whose aftershocks had shaken the top of the state for many months, from press revelations to parliamentary committees.
Read also Benalla, his passports, his privileges
Since then targeted by a series of judicial investigations, Alexandre Benalla faced court for three weeks, with his friend and former employee of the presidential party (LREM) Vincent Crase, as well as two police officers. Warning against a case
"already judged by the court of opinion"
, the prosecutors called to return to the
"facts"
.
They maintained at the hearing that Benalla and Crase had
"acted with police officers, like police officers and sometimes in place of the police"
, while their intervention was
"not necessary"
. The magistrates considered that they had committed
“illegitimate violence”
on a total of four people in the Latin Quarter. They demanded a one-year suspended prison sentence against Vincent Crase, a 48-year-old former reservist gendarme, also prosecuted for illegally carrying a weapon that day.
In this file with drawers, Alexandre Benalla is also implicated for having carried a pistol without authorization in 2017 in Poitiers, as well as for having used, after his dismissal, two diplomatic passports during eleven trips and for producing a false document in order to '' obtain a service passport.
The prosecution also asked for his conviction for these facts, as well as additional penalties of 500 euros fine, a ban from all public service for five years and from carrying a weapon for ten years - fifteen years for Vincent Crase.
Read alsoAlexandre Benalla, an "observer" in defiance of the rules
Describing a
"media tidal wave"
, a
"cataclysm"
for a man who has been
"demonized"
, the defense of the former member of Emmanuel Macron's cabinet pleaded for release for all offenses, to the exception of the fraudulent use - recognized - of diplomatic passports. His lawyers argued that he and Vincent Crase had
"helped to arrest"
perpetrators of a
"flagrant"
offense
, as the law allows in certain circumstances, arguing that their actions were
"proportionate"
.
Two former officials of the Paris police headquarters were tried with them for having transmitted CCTV images to Alexandre Benalla.
The prosecution requested two and four months suspended imprisonment against them;
their lawyers pleaded an
"error of discernment"
and released her.
