Sustained activity which will continue in 2020 if the health situation does not arise – once again – to shake up the audiences. Political scandals, from Karachi to Bygmalion via the attacks of 12 November 2015 , the judicial calendar promises to be busy. 19 Minutes lists the most anticipated trials.
January : The trial of Edouard Balladur in the Karachi case
Edouard Balladur during the funeral of Jacques Chirac in September 2019. – ISA HARSIN / SIPA
Former Prime Minister Edouard Balladur will kick off the planned media trials in 2021. It will be judged from 17 January to 18 next February before the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR). An expected trial which will take place before an atypical court since only the CJR is empowered to judge offenses committed by members of the government during the exercise of their functions. AT 91 years old, Edouard Balladur was dismissed for “complicity in abuse of corporate assets ”and“ concealment ”of this offense. But he will not be alone on the defendants’ bench.
François Léotard, his former Minister of Defense, will also appear for acts of “complicity”. Justice will have to determine their responsibility in the possible hidden financing of the presidential campaign of Edouard Balladur in 1995, via feedback revealed by the investigation into the Karachi attack committed in 1995 in Pakistan, causing the death of 14 people including 12 French workers. A first trial in this case, targeting several relatives of the former Prime Minister, was concluded on 14 June 2020 to severe sentences before the Paris Criminal Court.
March: Nicolas Sarkozy back in court with the trial of the “Bygmalion” case
The former head of state has not finished with the courtrooms. Already judged at the end of the year 2019 for “corruption” in the context of the “tapping” affair , Nicolas Sarkozy must appear from 17 March for “illegal campaign financing”. This trial comes after a long legal battle since Nicolas Sarkozy had filed several appeals – before the Court of Cassation and then the Constitutional Council – considering that he had already been punished by the Wise Men in 2013 when his campaign accounts were rejected.
Unsuccessful candidate in the presidential election of 2002, he is being prosecuted for having exceeded the authorized threshold of election expenses at height over 19 millions of euros. Last October, the Court of Cassation ruled and confirmed the referral of Nicolas Sarkozy before the magistrates of the criminal court. In this case, the former President faces a sentence of one year in prison and 3. 700 euros fine. A lighter sanction than the one currently hanging over him in the wiretapping affair, since the prosecution requested against him four years in prison including two closed. At the opening of the Bygmalion trial, Nicolas Sarkozy should be determined on his fate on this subject, the judgment in the wiretapping file is expected on March 1.
April: The police officers of the BAC North of Marseille at the bar
Sebastien Bennardo, former policeman of the North Marseille Bac is the man by whom the scandal happened in 2002. – PATRICE MAGNIEN / 20 MINU / SIPA
The scandal had shaken the police house and the Marseille metropolis. From the 12 next April, 17 former members of a “Bac” (Anti-Crime Brigade) intervening in the northern districts of the city will be tried for theft of drugs and money . What is at stake in this trial, which comes seven years after the revelations that waved this police unit, is to determine whether the officials acted within the framework of a well-established “system”.
The defendants, who plead “misconduct”, have already received sanctions since three have been dismissed, one has been demoted and the others have received suspensions or blame. The affair, widely publicized, was the subject of a recent adaptation to the cinema with the release of the film Bac Nord , directed by Cedric Jimenez.
May: Nordahl Lelandais at the assizes for the first time for the murder of Arthur Noyer A photo of Corporal Arthur Noyer, during his funeral in September 2018. – GUILLAUME SOUVANT / AFP
This is the first time that Nordahl Lelandais will face a jury of ‘seated. Suspected in several cases, including that of the murder of little Maëlys, the man will be tried from 3 to 12 may for the murder of Corporal Arthur Noyer , killed in April 2015. Initially indicted for the assassination of the young soldier, the former dog handler will finally be tried for murder, by decision of the investigating judges who had followed the requisitions of the prosecution rejecting premeditation.
Returned to the Chambéry assizes, Nordahl Lelandais incurs a sentence of thirty years of criminal imprisonment. In March 2017, the accused had admitted, before the magistrates in charge of the investigation, a fight with Arthur Noyer after having hitchhiked at the exit of a nightclub in Chambéry.
September: Opening of the river trial of the November attacks 2013
A body lies near the Bataclan on 12 November 2013. – Thibault Camus / AP / SIPA
Placed in solitary confinement and watched by the prison administration, the thirty-something is the only survivor of the commandos deployed in the streets of Paris on the orders of
Daesh . Remained silent throughout the investigation, Salah Abdeslam faces a life sentence. In total, 91 people died that evening, near the Stade de France, in bars and restaurants in the capital and during the hostage-taking at the Bataclan.
