Two renowned criminal lawyers, tried in Paris for having transmitted to justice a document in favor of the British drug trafficker Robert Dawes which turned out to be falsified, were acquitted, Tuesday, April 18, of the count of attempted fraud in the judgment.
Joseph Cohen-Sabban and Xavier Nogueras, on the other hand, were sentenced to a fine of 15,000 euros and a three-year suspended ban on practicing for violation of professional secrecy.
These two tenors of the bar defended Robert Dawes during his trial before the Paris Assize Court in December 2018, at the end of which the Briton was sentenced to twenty-two years in prison. Considered one of the biggest drug traffickers in Europe, Mr Dawes, 50, was on trial for importing 1.3 tonnes of cocaine in 2013. At the opening of the proceedings at the assizes, his lawyers had therefore produced documents which turned out to be false.
“No lawyer normally diligent and concerned about the defense of a client would have adopted such behavior imbued with a casualness and a levity more than blameworthy”, declared the president, Isabelle Prévost-Desprez. “You have deliberately betrayed your oath as a lawyer. »
Relief
The announcement of the judgment was greeted with immense relief from the room, which was completely occupied by “black robes” who had come to support their two colleagues. For many lawyers present, this judgment sounds like a tribute to criminal lawyer Hervé Temime, who died last week, and whose final argument was devoted to the defense of his young colleague Xavier Nogueras. The audience opened with a minute of silence in his memory.
During their trial in February, the public prosecutor had asked for three and two years of imprisonment respectively, accompanied in both cases by a suspended sentence of one year. He also asked for a five-year ban on practicing against Joseph Cohen-Sabban, 69, a regular in organized crime, and Xavier Nogueras, 42, a noted figure in the mega-trials of jihadists including that of the attacks of 13- November 2015.
Also prosecuted for attempted fraud in judgment and complicity by instruction in breach of professional secrecy, Robert Dawes and his henchman Evan Hughes, absent from the hearing, were respectively sentenced on Tuesday to 5 and 4 years in prison farm. The second, whose essential role in the falsification of documents in the file and their transmission to lawyers has been demonstrated, is the subject of an international arrest warrant.