At the heart of a political scandal with twists and turns, the former project manager of the Elysée Alexandre Benalla is retried on appeal from Friday June 9 for violence committed during May 1, 2018, which had earned him a year imprisonment at first instance.
Dressed in a gray suit, short beard and square glasses, the 31-year-old man, now in private practice, took his place on the defendants’ bench shortly after ten o’clock and told the president of the court that he would agree to speak at the trial
At the helm, Mr. Benalla admitted “many errors in [his] defense”, regretting “youthful errors”, even if he understands that this could have been “perceived as provocations”.
Robin Binsard, Vincent Crase’s lawyer – who was in the dock alongside Mr. Benalla – must file a priority question of constitutionality (QPC) at the start of the hearing, relating to the offense of “interference in a public office,” the two men were accused of.
Alexandre Benalla is accused of having molested three men and two women while trying to arrest them on the sidelines of the May 1, 2018 demonstration in Paris. He was then wearing a police helmet, while he only attended the parade as an “observer”.
The Benalla affair broke out on July 18 of the same year, after his identification by Le Monde in a video where he brutalized a couple, Place de la Contrescarpe. The man, who worked at the center of the President of the Republic’s security system, had been suspended for two weeks, but still had an office at the “Château”.
This revelation had triggered a political earthquake, the aftershocks of which had shaken Emmanuel Macron’s power for months, to the rhythm of press revelations and hearings in Parliament.
Alexandre Benalla, now 31, will also have to answer again before the Court of Appeal for “forgery, use of forgery in writing and public use without the right of a badge” for having continued to travel with diplomatic passports after his dismissal from the Elysée, and which he would have used for business trips to Africa and Israel as part of his new consulting activities.
The former close associate of the president is finally being accused of having illegally carried a handgun during the year 2017.
This appeal trial was originally scheduled to be held at the end of January, but the hearing was postponed due to Mr. Benalla’s “personal and health difficulties”.
Three years in prison at first instance
At first instance, he had been sentenced to a three-year prison sentence, including a firm sentence under an electronic bracelet, together with a ban on holding public employment for five years and a ban on carrying a weapon for ten. years.
At the hearing, he denied almost all of the charges against him, claiming to have acted “by reflex” citizen, but not hesitating “to give absurd and irresponsible explanations”, according to the judgment of the correctional court of Paris.
His sidekick, Vincent Crase, another key figure in the case, at the time in charge of security at the En Marche party! (now Renaissance), will also appear again on the dock for “violence in meetings”, “prohibited carrying” of a telescopic baton and “interference in a public function”, for having participated illegally in the arrest of three people.
He is also accused of having forced one of these people to erase a video taken with his mobile phone.
A long-time friend of Alexandre Benalla, the 50-year-old reservist ex-gendarme, now unemployed, had been sentenced at first instance to a two-year suspended prison sentence and a ban on carrying a weapon.
“He never wanted (…) to violate anyone but, on the contrary, to defend the police and to put an end to the commission of offenses by particularly aggressive demonstrators”, justified his lawyer, Robin Binsard, who will seek his relaxed.
The two police officers convicted at first instance for having transmitted CCTV images to Alexandre Benalla on the evening of the publication of the article in Le Monde did not appeal.
Three other preliminary investigations opened
In addition to the five alleged victims of the violence in the meeting, two police unions have joined as civil parties, as well as the former chief of staff of the Elysée, François-Xavier Lauch, and the author of the video of the 1st- May, the former journalist and activist Taha Bouhafs, whose civil party application had been deemed inadmissible at first instance.
Alexandra Benalla is the subject of three other preliminary investigations.
The first concerns his role in signing contracts with Russian oligarchs while he was in office at the Elysée. One of them, concluded in June 2018, provided for the protection of Iskander Makhmudov, a sulphurous man known to be close to Vladimir Putin and the Moscow mafia. He was signed with Vincent Crase’s company, but several elements revealed by Mediapart show that Alexandre Benalla was personally involved in the negotiation, while he was still working at the Elysée. Another contract was signed in December 2018 with Farkhad Akhmedov by a company set up by a relative of Alexandre Benalla, who donated part of the profits to him through a company in Morocco.
Another investigation, opened in February 2019 for “obstructing the manifestation of the truth”, aims to determine whether he concealed evidence as part of the investigation into the violence of May 1, 2018, including two safes .
The third, launched in April 2019, relates to suspicions of “false testimony” by MM. Benalla and Crase before the Senate Committee of Inquiry into the case. The trial is scheduled to last until June 16.
