The National Assembly decided on Wednesday to send a report to the courts for potential
“false testimony”
from former
BFMTV
journalist Rachid M'Barki, who had contested before the deputies that he had received money for news articles. contentious issues broadcast on air.
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In March 2023, during his hearing before the commission of inquiry into foreign interference, the former presenter of the channel assured that he had never been paid by the lobbyist Jean-Pierre Duthion for controversial briefs on foreign countries in 2021 and 2022. Jean-Pierre Duthion also claimed to have
“never paid, neither Rachid M'Barki, nor any other”
journalist.
Since then, Jean-Pierre Duthion, indicted in Paris in the investigation into suspicions of foreign interference in French politics and current affairs, has admitted to having paid the former BFMTV journalist.
Recognized acts of “passive corruption”
Also indicted, Rachid M'Barki himself admitted to having received this money, during his police custody in December, revealed
Le Parisien
:
"I happened to receive sums of money (... ) Yes, I recognize the facts of passive corruption
,” he declared.
A sum that he estimates between
“six and eight thousand euros”
in cash.
According to parliamentary sources, the office of the Assembly, its highest body, decided to take legal action for
“strong suspicions”
of
“false testimony”
before the commission of inquiry.
It was seized by the Renaissance rapporteur Constance Le Grip.
The RN president of the Commission Jean-Philippe Tanguy had already announced a report made on his side.
The judicial investigation began after a complaint from BFMTV and an international investigation in mid-February 2023 by the collective of journalists Forbidden Stories.
It pointed to the activities of an Israeli company, nicknamed Team Jorge, specializing in disinformation for the benefit of different clients, including States.
In the case of Rachid M'Barki on BFMTV, she pointed out news items relating to Russian oligarchs, Qatar, Sudan, Cameroon, and even Western Sahara.
In addition to Jean-Pierre Duthion and Rachid M'Barki, the judicial investigation is interested in at least two other men: the political scientist specializing in Qatar Nabil Ennasri, indicted and placed in pre-trial detention in October, as well as the environmentalist deputy Hubert Julien-Laferrière, whose office was searched at the end of September.