The judgment of the Court of Appeal on Jean-Noël Guérini, the former boss of the PS des Bouches-du-Rhône, and Alexandre Guérini, businessman, both sentenced at first instance to imprisonment for rigged public markets, expected this Wednesday, February 23, has been extended to March 30.
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The reasons for this postponement, announced to the parties at 2 p.m. at the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal, were not specified by the general prosecutor's office.
On May 28, after a first trial before the Marseille Criminal Court, "
Nono
" Guérini and his youngest son Alexandre were respectively sentenced to three years in prison, including 18 months suspended and six years in prison.
President of the Bouches-du-Rhône department for nearly 17 years (from 1998 to 2015), the 71-year-old elected official, re-elected for a fourth term as senator in September 2020, was also given a sentence of ineligibility of five years with provisional execution, which should have forced him to abandon his chair in the Luxembourg Palace.
The Constitutional Council had finally granted him a reprieve in November, rejecting the request for forfeiture of his mandate as senator in the absence of a final conviction by the courts.
“Characterized dishonesty”
Advocate General Pierre-Jean Gaury had particularly insisted, on December 13, at the appeal trial, on the responsibility of the eldest, Jean-Noël, accusing him of having "
acted with marked dishonesty
" to help the affairs of his brother in waste treatment.
The magistrate had asked for an aggravation of the sentences against the two defendants: four years in prison, two of which were suspended against the politician, eight years against the businessman.
Renewing the request for five years of ineligibility against Jean-Noël Guérini, the Advocate General had expressly requested the provisional execution of this sentence, and this “
even if the Constitutional Council decides otherwise
”.
Jean-Noël Guérini is accused of having pre-empted land in the name of the department, on the pretext of saving a rare plant there, the "
fluffy bindweed
", then of having resold it to the urban community of La Ciotat to favor his brother who needed it for the extension of a landfill.
Alexandre Guérini, nicknamed "
Mister brother
" within the general council of Bouches-du-Rhône, had been imprisoned in Baumettes after his first trial and was released in mid-January pending the appeal decision .
He is accused of having used the position of his elder to put pressure on elected officials or civil servants to circumvent public procurement procedures, to enrich himself, to eliminate competitors or to favor relatives.