A former minister soon to face the judge.
The former figure of the right, Michèle Alliot-Marie, will be tried on July 1 in Nanterre in a case of illegal taking of interests in the town hall of Saint-Jean-de-Luz, the prosecution told AFP on Thursday .
In January, an investigating magistrate ordered the referral to a criminal court of the former Minister of Defense, Interior, Justice and Foreign Affairs under Jacques Chirac and then Nicolas Sarkozy.
In this case, Michèle Alliot-Marie, 77, is targeted for her alleged role in paying subsidies to an association chaired by her father when she was deputy mayor of Saint-Jean-de-Luz, there is more of a decade.
A judicial investigation was opened in 2013 in Nanterre.
The investigation highlighted subsidies from the town hall of Saint-Jean-de-Luz to an association which organized the city's Young Directors Festival and was headed by Bernard Marie, who died in 2015.
The association received 25,000 euros annually from the town hall
According to information collected during the investigation, between January 2010 and October 2012, this association recorded in its bank account credit flows exceeding 260,000 euros coming in particular from the Saint-Jean-de-Luz Tourist Office, which -even subsidized by the municipality.
Each year, the association received 25,000 euros from the town hall.
However, between 2009 and 2013, the date of the last edition of the directors' festival, Michèle Alliot-Marie was deputy mayor, in addition to her duties as Keeper of the Seals and then Minister of Foreign Affairs.
“Madame Michèle Alliot-Marie has not committed an offence,” her lawyers, Messrs Rémi Lorrain and Christophe Ingrain, reacted to AFP in mid-January.
“The referral, which concerns facts dating back more than 12 years, is based on serious confusion in the understanding of this file.
We will have no difficulty in demonstrating the innocence of Michèle Alliot-Marie,” added her counsel.