The magistrates decided, Tuesday April 23, 2024, to keep Jamilah Habsaoui in detention. The mayor of Avallon (Yonne), indicted in a drug trafficking case, has been incarcerated for two weeks now at the Dijon remand center. The elected official continues to proclaim her innocence while investigators work to determine whether, as Jamilah Habsaoui claims, the drugs were stored without her knowledge in the family home of which she is the owner.
Me Audard, lawyer for Jamilah Habsaoui, seemed calm and suggested a rapid release from detention for the mayor of Avallon, suspected since April 7, 2024 of being involved in drug trafficking with two of her brothers and three other men. During the hearing on April 10 before the judge of freedoms and detention, in Auxerre, at the end of which Jamilah Habsaoui was incarcerated, the magistrate ordered an investigation into the feasibility of a house arrest measure under electronic monitoring.
According to information from Republican Yonne, confirmed by the public prosecutor of Auxerre Hugues de Phily, the Auxerre magistrates decided to keep Jamilah Habsaoui in pre-trial detention: “the request for the release of Ms. Habsaoui was rejected by the judge of freedoms and detention Tuesday”, indicates without further details on the motivations for the decision the public prosecutor, this Thursday, April 25. The mayor of Avallon has been imprisoned for two weeks now in the Dijon remand center (Côte-d’Or).
The elected official’s lawyer, who confided a few days earlier to be “certain”, “that the current investigation will completely exonerate the mayor of Avallon”, did not wish to comment on the judges’ decision. And this is due to the fact that he no longer defends the mayor of Avallon. Me Audard estimated, on the evening of his client’s incarceration, that “the media coverage of this affair, combined with the public position of [sa] client, had played a particularly heavy role in the decision to place her in pre-trial detention”.
The mayor of Avallon Jamilah Habsaoui was indicted for possession and complicity in the supply or sale of narcotics
Cannabis, cocaine and fake ID
Jamilah Habsaoui, who denies having been aware of the storage of 70 kg of cannabis resin in the family house of which she is the owner, proclaims her innocence to the judicial authorities. Her two brothers, suspected of having orchestrated this drug trafficking, cleared their sister while certain relatives of the elected official confided that they had “not the slightest doubt” as to the innocence of the elected official who had just been imprisoned, during of a rally to support her. Jewelry, cocaine and a false ID were found in a safe stored in the garage of the Habsaoui family’s house.
In addition to the cannabis seized both in an outbuilding and in the garage of the mayor’s house, the gendarmes, according to our information, discovered a safe in the garage during the search on April 7. A metal box opened by gendarmes using a disc grinder which contained jewelry, less than a kilo of cocaine and a false identity document: a document which did not belong to the mayor of Avallon.
Strict detention conditions
The investigation continues to determine whether or not the elected official from Avallon and regional councilor was unaware of the presence of drugs on her property. In this case, five men are indicted alongside the mayor, including two of her brothers.
In detention in Dijon since April 10, Jamilah Habsaoui only receives visits from her partner, in a restricted framework. Exchanges with his lawyer, Me Audard, took place mainly by telephone. According to those around her, the elected official intends to do everything possible, from the remand center, to “make sure her words are heard”. “So that the truth comes out.” The announcement of her continued detention, however, is a new blow for an elected official whose public and private lives have literally been shattered since her arrest.
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Tiphaine Sirieix
