The sling wind is struggling to settle around the new Keeper of the Seals. Jean-Luc Lennon, prosecutor of the Republic of Basse-Terre, asked to be "relieved of his duties", after the appointment of Eric Dupond-Moretti to the Chancellery, we learned on Saturday from the interested party, confirming information from RCI Guadeloupe.
Contacted by AFP, Jean-Luc Lennon asserts a "conscience clause". "It is a completely personal decision that is mine only," emphasizes Mr. Lennon, who recalls that, "like other magistrates, (he) has campaigned for a long time for the independence of the public prosecutor". This independence "is slow to come," he explained on Radio Caribbean International.
The announcement of the appointment of this thundering penalist, not always stingy with attacks on judges, stunned many magistrates and brought out of its hinges the majority union in the judiciary, the USM, which saw in it a "declaration of war ".
"At war with no one," says the Chancellery
Regularly, the turmoil around politico-financial affairs brings back to the fore the eternal suspicions about the independence of the judiciary. Mr. Dupond-Moretti, ex-criminal lawyer, assured Tuesday during the handover with Nicole Belloubet wanting "to move forward on (this) project which (he) takes to heart". He "wishes to be the Keeper of the Seals who will finally carry the long awaited parquet reform".
The Ministry of Justice reacted to AFP by emphasizing that, during the handover speech, Mr. Dupond-Moretti had explained "that he was not at war with anyone". The Keeper of the Seals "will soon receive organizations representative of the magistrates in order to initiate a constructive and peaceful dialogue", we added.
"I considered that I would no longer be a good attorney"
According to Mr. Lennon, "a public prosecutor is responsible for applying within the jurisdiction of his jurisdiction the criminal policy which is determined by the government which is carried by the Keeper of the Seals" and "the public prosecutor must also be in conscience, able to do so with loyalty ”.
“From the moment you consider that the conditions are no longer fulfilled to do so for reasons that are mine, […] I considered that I would no longer be a good public prosecutor if I was one. And therefore, this is the path I have chosen to ask that I can be relieved of these functions which, moreover, are functions to which I have always aspired and in which I deeply believe ”, explained Jean- Luc Lennon on Guadeloupe radio.
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This discharge must be the subject of a decree expected "in the coming weeks" according to Mr. Lennon. This should allow him to return to his original place of employment which is the public prosecutor's office. The Ministry of Justice was not immediately available.
