Legislative-2017: a former deputy returned to trial for attempted electoral destabilization

Laurence Arribagé, former LR MP and current deputy mayor of Toulouse, is referred to the Paris Criminal Court on suspicion of an attempt at electoral destabilization targeting her rival LREM Corinne Vignon during the 2017 legislative elections, a source said on Tuesday September 20. judicial.

By order of September 12, she will be tried for concealment of slanderous denunciation, concealment of violation of professional secrecy and concealment of illegal taking of interests, according to this source, confirming information from the online newspaper

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At the end of this judicial investigation, opened in Toulouse then disoriented in Paris, two other people will also have to appear before the court.

One for slanderous denunciation, violation of professional secrecy and illegal taking of interests and the other for slanderous denunciation and concealment of violation of professional secrecy, according to the judicial source.

According to a source familiar with the matter, it is Marc Menvielle, former number two in public finance in Occitania, and the former employer of Corinne Vignon.

Lawyers for Laurence Arribagé and Marc Menvielle did not immediately respond to AFP's requests.

The case dates back to the in-between rounds of the legislative elections in June 2017, in the 3rd district of Haute-Garonne.

The LREM candidate Corinne Vignon was then struggling with the outgoing LR deputy, Laurence Arribagé, when a denunciation of concealed work targeting Corinne Vignon was launched by Marc Menvielle, deputy director of public finances for the Occitanie region.

The election of Corinne Vignon had not, however, been compromised.

At the time of the opening of the judicial information in January 2021, the Toulouse prosecutor's office had mentioned "

".

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Marc Menvielle had denounced, without informing his hierarchy, without prior investigation, facts likely to harm Corinne Vignon, for the benefit of Laurence Arribagé, with the complicity of a magistrate, according to a source close to the investigation.

The magistrate in question, Patrice Michel, deputy prosecutor of Toulouse at the time and now retired, was not indicted during the investigation but placed under the more favorable status of assisted witness, according to a source. close to the survey.

He is therefore not sent back to correctional.

Corinne Vignon, amateur astrologer in addition to being a salesperson, had made three horoscopes a few years earlier, for an amount of around 200 euros, without declaring them.

These facts, objects of the report for concealed work, having been considered derisory, the Toulouse prosecutor's office had finally closed the procedure without further action.