The National Financial Prosecutor’s Office has requested suspended prison sentences against the LR mayor of Caluire-et-Cuire Philippe Cochet and his wife, tried in Lyon in a fictitious employment case.
The National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) requested on Friday suspended prison sentences of 3 years and 18 months against the mayor of Caluire-et-Cuire Philippe Cochet (LR) and his wife Laëtitia Cochet, as part of their trial in Lyon for a fictitious job dating back to the time when the mayor was also a member of parliament, reports Le Progrès. The PNF’s requests also include a 5-year ineligibility sentence against the mayor.
The couple were tried on Thursday and Friday in this case in which Philippe Cochet is accused of having, between 2009 and 2017, paid his wife with public money as a “principal” parliamentary collaborator when he was a member of parliament for the 5th constituency of the Rhône.
According to the anti-corruption association Anticor, which filed a complaint against the couple in 2021, Laëtitia Cochet never actually held such a position.
Judgment rendered in December
The head of the main opposition group in the Lyon metropolitan area and his wife produced traces of exchanges (emails, telephone records) and 17 testimonies supposedly proving that the job held corresponded to work actually carried out. Which did not convince the PNF.
The National Assembly and France Travail have joined as civil parties and are demanding full reimbursement of the wages paid to Laëtitia Cochet, the unemployment benefit paid to her when her husband was beaten in 2017, for a total amount of 837,000 euros. Anticor is demanding the sum of 10,000 euros.
The court is due to deliver its judgment on December 11 at 9 a.m., according to Le Progrès.
Jordan Muzyczka and Glenn Gillet
