Former Interior Minister Claude Guéant and former President of French Polynesia Gaston Flosse were heard as witnesses as part of the investigation into the death in 1979 of Robert Boulin, AFP was told on Tuesday the lawyer of the latter’s daughter. The hearing of these two figures of the French right took place on January 10 before the investigating judge of the judicial court of Versailles (Yvelines) responsible for the case, indicated Me Marie Dosé, confirming information from France Inter. “They were heard at my request”specifies the council according to which the statements of Claude Guéant “confirm that we have been lied to from the start about the time of the discovery of the minister’s body”. “What Guéant says”then technical advisor to the Ministry of the Interior, “the Minister of the Interior was informed during the night” of the death, relates the lawyer.
However, she continues, the body of Robert Boulin is supposed to have been discovered at 8:40 a.m. the day after his death, according to the reports from the time. The last person to see Robert Boulin alive, Gaston Flosse, 93, participated in the hearing by videoconference from Papeete (French Polynesia). This close friend of Jacques Chirac and Charles Pasqua, deputy at the time of the events, confirmed having met Robert Boulin at his ministry on the afternoon of October 29, 1979, the day of his death. Gaston Flosse affirmed that the minister had “the look of anything but a suicide”indicates Me Dosé.
New twist in 2022
The body of Robert Boulin, 59, then a member of the RPR and Minister of Labor in Raymond Barre’s government, was found in a pond in the Rambouillet forest, in Yvelines. At the time, investigators concluded it was a suicide by drowning after ingestion of barbiturates. The minister had just been questioned regarding the conditions for acquiring land in Ramatuelle (Var). His family disputes this version and believes that he was murdered.
-The investigation, which was moving towards a dismissal after a notice of end of judicial investigation and an indictment from the prosecution to this effect, experienced a rebound in 2022 after the spontaneous demonstration of a witness. This testimony made it possible to identify a man who died in 1986 and was designated as the potential murderer of Robert Boulin. “We waited 10 years for Claude Guéant to be heard. Gaston Flosse himself was surprised not to have been auditioned once in 45 years”deplores Me Dosé. “I can only regret that all this has come so late”continues the lawyer, also worried about the fact that the magistrate who is investigating the case is leaving her position at the end of the month.
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