He was suspected of having transmitted confidential information on a judicial investigation in 2014. Bernard Petit, the former boss of 36, quai des Orfèvres was released on Tuesday by the Paris correctional court.
Almost eight years after his dismissal in early 2015 in the wake of his indictment for violation of the secrecy of the instruction, the 67-year-old former police officer was cleared by the court, thus following the requisitions of the prosecution during the trial.
Bernard Petit was suspected with his then chief of staff Richard Atlan of having transmitted, via the police officer Philippe Lemaître, information in October 2014 to the founder of the GIGN Christian Prouteau on an investigation concerning him.
The then boss of the Parisian judicial police was dismissed with a bang in February 2015, after his indictment in this case for violation of the secrecy of the instruction in particular.
The release requested by the prosecutor
After three weeks of hearing, the prosecutor Damien Fourn recalled that the statements of Philippe Lemaître constituted the "cornerstone" of the act of referral to the court.
"Philippe Lemaître's version is marked by too many dodges, contradictions, inconsistencies," said the prosecutor.
“There were leaks in this procedure, that's for sure.
(…) It is nevertheless not possible to determine with certainty the exact content and origin of this information,” he added.
“There is nothing to say, even today, that Bernard Petit and Richard Atlan communicated in any way whatsoever information covered by the secrecy of the investigation”, he insisted.
The public prosecutor demanded a general release in the second part of a file with drawers, involving a total of 19 defendants, examined since September 12 by the Paris Criminal Court.
The investigation of which the former top cops are suspected of having violated the secrecy constitutes the first part of this affair.
In this first part, "the swindler of the stars" Christophe Rocancourt and the lawyer Marcel Ceccaldi are suspected of having, at the beginning of 2014, tried to have two Moroccan sisters regularized by asking Christian Prouteau and the former Secretary of State Kofi Yamgnane to intervene, for a fee.