A new EU report accuses the candidate of the National Rally, Marine Le Pen, of having personally embezzled nearly 137,000 euros of public money. Three other former RN MEPs are targeted, including Louis Aliot.
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“Olaf and Mediapart are outside the law and I hope that we will take legal action to find out where the leaks come from and how the investigation is done because we don’t know anything about it”declares Louis Aliot, mayor Rassemblement national de Perpignan, guest on franceinfo Sunday morning, about the investigation report of the European Anti-Fraud Office (Olaf) revealed on Saturday April 16 by Mediapart (article reserved for subscribers).
According to extracts published by the news site, Olaf accuses Marine Le Pen and her relatives of having embezzled around 600,000 euros of European public money during their terms of office as MEPs. “We are in European affairscomments Louis Aliot, the same ones that affect Messrs. Bayrou and Mélenchon”. “There is an organization over there which conducts investigations without adversarial principle, without respecting the rights of the defense, which supplies Mediapart with information that we do not have”he adds.
Louis Aliot himself is cited among those close to Marine Le Pen who would have benefited from this fraud. “As far as I’m concerned, from what I’ve read, it’s a kakemono, a fabric poster of 2,500 euros”, explains the chosen one. He “formally disputes what is in the article”. Louis Aliot denies these accusations and hopes to be able to“explain in relation to what we [lui] reproach” : “I will bring the evidence, the photos, the testimonies”he assures.
Asked about a possible complaint filed, Louis Aliot replied in the affirmative and accused Olaf and Mediapart to flout “all the principles of law that make up a democracy: adversarial principle, respect for the right of defence, secrecy of investigation and instruction”. He claims to have instructed his lawyer to find out “How is it possible that today in investigations like this that the media like Mediapart are better informed than us and that we do not have access to the file to know what we are accused of”.