ex-president of the UDI Jean-Christophe Lagarde indicted

The magazine “Le Point” published an article in June 2022 accusing the couple of having employed a cleaning lady without a residence permit.

The Paris prosecutor's office announced, Friday December 13, the indictment of the former president of the UDI Jean-Christophe Lagarde, on October 8, in the investigation into an article in Point in 2022 wrongly accusing former LFI MP Raquel Garrido and MP Alexis Corbière (ex-Insoumis). The journalist who wrote the disputed article, Aziz Zemouri, then filed a complaint against former MP Jean-Christophe Lagarde, accusing him of having voluntarily given him false information about the two elected officials, while he was facing the Raquel Garrido era in the legislative elections. The elected official from La France insoumise then beat him in the 5th constituency of Seine-Saint-Denis, in June 2022, three days after the publication of the article.

A police officer seconded to the town hall of Drancy (Seine-Saint-Denis), Anouar Bouhadjela, also called Noam Anouar, was also indicted on October 10 in this same case. Jean-Christophe Lagarde and this police officer are being prosecuted for “organized gang fraud and concealment of property resulting from a theft”, specified the prosecution. “They were left free without security measures”he added.

After the magazine The Point had published the article accusing Raquel Garrido and MP Alexis Corbière of having employed a cleaning lady without a residence permit, the couple filed a complaint for defamation. The weekly then withdrew the article. The director of the magazine, Etienne Gernelle, had admitted errors and failures to exercise caution. A few weeks later, Etienne Gernelle apologized, and Aziz Zemouri was fired.