Sophia Chikirou indicted for “aggravated fraud”

LFI MP for Paris, Sophia Chikirou, was indicted on Tuesday morning, September 24, for “aggravated fraud” in the case of the 2017 campaign accounts of presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, to whom she is close, franceinfo learned from a judicial source.

Sophia Chikirou was summoned Tuesday morning by the investigating judges for this indictment, reported AFP and Le Monde. After a little over two hours of questioning, the MP for the sixth constituency of Paris was indicted for “aggravated fraud”, “misuse of corporate assets” and “concealment of breach of trust”, said this judicial source.

The courts suspect Mediascop, the MP’s communications consultancy, of overcharging for certain services during Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s campaign in 2017, something the 45-year-old MP denies.

In 2018, the National Commission for Campaign Accounts and Political Financing (CNCCFP), then the French financial intelligence unit Tracfin, sent reports to the Paris prosecutor’s office, which opened a preliminary investigation, entrusted to judges in November of the same year.

In the meantime, spectacular searches had been carried out at the party headquarters, at the home of the Insoumis leader and many collaborators, triggering the ire of the radical left party. Part of these searches were broadcast live on Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s Facebook page.