The Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal partially canceled on Thursday the indictment for misappropriation of Alain Ferrand, mayor (DVD) of the seaside resort of Barcarès (Pyrénées-Orientales), who remains indicted for organized extortion and complicity in the destruction of evidence.
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In 2020, a judicial investigation entrusted to an investigating judge of the specialized interregional jurisdiction of Marseilles had been opened following suspicions of irregularities in the creation and implementation of taxes or duties, without legal basis, for merchants and campsite managers.
Concussion consists in the collection by a person holding public authority of duties and taxes that are not due or, conversely, in their unjustified exemption.
The Court of Appeal canceled the indictment of the mayor of Barcarès concerning the facts of embezzlement by collection of rights, in this case those claimed for the occupation of the public domain by parasols and the financial participation of campsites in the tourist animation of the municipality.
Four other people charged
"
This is good news
", welcomed Alain Ferrand's lawyer, Me Jean-Robert Nguyen Phung, because this head of indictment was, according to him, "
the essence of what weighed
" on his client, "
the backbone of the prosecution
".
“
In this file, there were no serious or concordant indications that could justify this indictment
,” he argued to AFP.
However, the indictment for misappropriation by exoneration of sums due was upheld.
Four other people indicted for complicity in embezzlement benefit from this analysis of the Court of Appeal, including the first deputy mayor.
Revocation of judicial review
The judges validated the analysis developed by the defense of Alain Ferrand: “
How can a mayor be bribery when the sums claimed have been voted during a Republican municipal council by a deliberation subject to the control of legality of the prefect and likely to 'be attacked before the administrative court
,' questioned Me Jean-Robert Nguyen Phung.
During his indictment, on May 6, 2021, Alain Ferrand, a figure of the right in the Pyrénées-Orientales, had been placed under judicial supervision but this measure had been revoked following violations of the prohibitions which had been imposed on him.
Alain Ferrand was detained in the Baumettes prison in Marseille on January 28 but released a dozen days later by the Court of Appeal due to a nullity of procedure in the order revoking his judicial control.
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Elected for the first time in 1995 mayor of this seaside resort which has 6000 inhabitants but ten times more in summer, Alain Ferrand was re-elected hands down during the municipal elections of 2020. Since 1995, he has shared the chair of mayor of Barcarès with his wife Joëlle, according to the ineligibility of one and the other.