Are the facts alleged against Alexis Kohler largely time-barred? The Paris Court of Appeal rules this Tuesday on the argument raised by the secretary general of the Elysée, accused of illegally taking interests in the investigation into his family ties with the shipowner MSC.
What is he accused of?
After revelations from Mediapart in 2018, Emmanuel Macron's right-hand man has been indicted since September 2022 for illegal taking of interests for having participated as a senior official from 2009 to 2016 in several decisions relating to the Italian-Swiss-led shipowner by his mother's cousins, the Aponte family.
Until 2012, he served as a representative of the State Participation Agency on the board of directors of STX France, better known under the current name of Chantiers de l'Atlantique, as well as on that of the Grand maritime port of Le Havre. Or two partners of the shipowner MSC.
He is then suspected of having, between 2012 and 2016, participated in choices on files involving MSC in Bercy, in the cabinet of Pierre Moscovici then Emmanuel Macron.
What is his defense?
Contesting what he has been accused of since the beginning, the 52-year-old from Strasbourg claims that he has always kept his distance from decisions concerning MSC and that he has always informed his superiors of his family ties with the shipowner.
Alexis Kohler's defense also asserts that part of the incriminated facts took place before 2014 and are therefore time-barred, hence this request examined by the court of appeal.
Are the facts prescribed?
The investigating chamber examined the request of the defense of Emmanuel Macron's right arm behind closed doors on October 1. In an order consulted by AFP, the investigating magistrates refute the limitation argument. According to them, the Secretary General of the Elysée would have knowingly “concealed” this conflict of interest through “positive acts”. Enough to place the beginning of the facts at the time of the Mediapart revelation, in May 2018.
For its part, according to elements of its written requisitions, the general prosecutor's office advocated during the October hearing to approve the prescription of the facts relating to STX and GPMH.
What possible outcomes?
Whatever the decision of the Paris Court of Appeal, several sources close to the case believe that the Court of Cassation will be seized of an appeal to decide on the merits of these questions in this very politically sensitive case.
The investigations have been closed since April 2023 and after a possible final decision in cassation, the PNF will be required to take its requisitions and decide between supporting the proceedings initiated or maintaining an opposition to them, before the final decision of the judges of instruction.
The President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, has repeatedly expressed his “confidence” in his “honest” right-hand man and considered that the “procedure is not being completed”.
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