Anticor, which fights against corruption, filed an appeal against a decision to close the public prosecutor of Évreux, an investigation into suspicions of irregularities at the town hall of Val-d’Hazey, in Eure . According to the association, this classification without further action is unjustified. The appeal would allow the investigation to be relaunched and started from scratch.
Should we relaunch the investigation into suspicions of irregularities at Val d’Hazey town hall? The local Seine-Maritime group of Anticor, an association which fights against corruption, filed an appeal on April 15, 2024 with the general prosecutor of the Court of Appeal of Rouen (Seine-Maritime), Nathalie Bécache, against a decision to dismiss the public prosecutor of Évreux dated May 24, 2022.
Information from our colleagues at Octopus, which has been confirmed to us.
Elected officials from the municipal council of the small town of 5,000 inhabitants near Gaillon in Eure were the target of an investigation at the end of November 2021, for forgery and illegal taking of interest.
The case was closed in May 2022 for “unjustified” reasons according to Anticor, because uncertainty remains as to the reality of this classification.
The alleged facts were reported to the courts by an opposition municipal councilor, who filed a complaint in May 2021, and by the Anticor association. The reports date back to 2021 and 2022.
They denounce several situations in which elected representatives of the majority participated in votes by the municipal council, for the allocation of subsidies to associations or organizations in which they held interests.
Anticor is particularly intrigued by a controversy over the town’s 12th circus festival, highlighting the dual role of a local elected official, both organizer of the circus festival, professional clown, and deputy for culture and communication. .
The affair was revealed and publicized at the time by our colleagues at Octopus, a Norman investigative media outlet.
Another example among others noted by an opposition elected official: two elected officials, married to women exercising responsibilities within an association, would have participated in the vote on the town hall’s subsidy agreements. This association in question would have obtained subsidies from the mayor of the municipality, to the tune of 17,700 euros in 2020, and 17,450 euros in 2021.
The opposition elected official, however, would have proposed an amendment aimed at excluding the elected officials concerned from the vote, an amendment rejected by the council.
On March 15, 2023, the Anticor association in turn filed a complaint with the Évreux public prosecutor for “illegal taking of interests, embezzlement of public funds and extortion”. In vain.
This complaint would not in reality “nothing given”. “The 2023 complaint does not appear to have been studied by the prosecution. The public prosecutor never informed the local Seine-Maritime group of Anticor of the follow-up given to these reports”, indicates the association.
In fact, the association learned in a letter from the Évreux public prosecutor’s office, dated January 3, 2024 that the investigation opened in May 2021 was in fact already closed without further action on May 24, 2022, under reason “absence of intentional elements”.
Uncertainty remains as to the reality of this classification. The prosecution took a long time, despite numerous requests and reminders, to send a copy of the initial criminal investigation to the complainant, then an opposition elected official, as provided for by law, from the moment an investigation is closed without continued and closed.
“What is problematic is that this classification notice dates from January 3, 2024, but is signed by the prosecution on May 24, 2022. There is a lack of communication which raises questions, we wonder why.”
However, during his numerous reminders to the prosecution, the whistleblower and Anticor believed that the investigation was still ongoing. “In August 2022, we said that the investigation is still ongoing even though it had in fact been closed since May”, the whistleblower’s lawyer tells us.
“Same thing in October, and same thing in spring 2023. The elected officials of the municipality of Val-d’Hazey had much more information than the complainant. We have the feeling that the prosecution has done everything to bury the matter”, the lawyer protests.
Faced with these questioning elements, Anticor hopes to restart the investigation. The association filed an appeal with the general prosecutor of the Court of Appeal of Rouen (Seine-Maritime), Nathalie Bécache, on April 15, 2024, against the classification decision of the Public Prosecutor.
According to Anticor, the dismissal of the case would be unjustified : “In any case, it appears, upon analysis of the preliminary investigation, that the latter was piecemeal, the investigators having limited themselves to interviewing only three of the people targeted by the complaint. These hearings were incomplete and of short duration, the investigators having refrained from asking questions essential to the manifestation of the truth.
Contacted, Dominique Puechmaille, prosecutor of the Évreux public prosecutor’s office at the time, told us that“no offense could reasonably be characterized as there was no intention to cause harm”.
For his part, Rémi Coutin, current prosecutor of Évreux who took office in September 2022, explains to us: “sOn an ethical level, I believe that I do not have to reverse a decision that was taken by my predecessor. I had sent a copy of the procedure to the lawyer so that he could have the challenge to the dismissal sent to the Rouen public prosecutor’s office, this is the normal procedure.”
He pursues : “The file is in the hands of the Attorney General, it is up to her to assess whether the investigation carried out at the time was not sufficient.”
Also contacted, the mayor of the town of Val-d’Hazey, Philippe Colas, did not respond to our requests.
