Karine Gonnet, president of the Fort-de-France judicial court, was the subject of searches in July in an investigation into suspicions of embezzlement of public funds, AFP learned on Friday from a source close to the case, confirming information from Mediapart. The searches allegedly took place at his office at the court, as well as at his homes in Martinique and Île-de-France.
According to the investigative media, investigators are questioning the use by the president of funds from the departmental council for access to law (CDAD) of Martinique, which she chairs, either for expenses unrelated to the purpose of the CDAD (to support the most disadvantaged in their legal proceedings), or for personal expenses. Karine Gonnet was also heard in a free hearing in mid-July, indicated the source close to the matter.
“I fear that in truth, Karine Gonnet is the victim of a scandalous cabal, of a heavily slanderous denunciation on the part of the former secretary general of the CDAD, that the first president of the Court of Appeal of Fort-de -France, Mr. Laurent Sabatier, will have relayed without ensuring the reality of the facts in question, through imprudence, and not, I hope, through malice,” accused François Saint-Pierre, his lawyer.
Many suspicious expenses
“Still, the damage is done,” he continued. “Ms. Gonnet will very soon be appointed to another court of appeal and will leave Martinique. But several procedures are underway which will shed light on the truth of this quite extraordinary story,” added the lawyer, assuring “to defend with determination” his client “unjustly attacked” and “presumed innocent”.
In detail, according to Mediapart, the investigators would examine various CDAD expenses: 100,000 euros paid for a photographic fresco created by a Martinican artist; the acquisition of a 4 x 4 that Karine Gonnet would have used personally or as household goods; airfare, hotel and restaurant expenses. The Central Office for the Fight against Corruption and Financial and Tax Offenses is responsible for the investigations.
The judicial investigation was opened on March 20 for corruption, influence peddling, illegal taking of interests, embezzlement of public funds, complicity and concealment. These investigations followed “an internal report to the CDAD” and “at this stage essentially tend to verify the reality of the internal accusations at the CDAD, in a conflict context”, judicial sources clarified in July.
Asked by AFP, the lawyer for the former general secretary of the CDAD did not immediately comment. The first president of the Court of Appeal of Fort-de-France Laurent Sabatier refused to comment, citing the confidentiality of the procedure.
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