The approval of the association is canceled with retroactive effect. Anticor has announced that it intends to file two appeals before the administrative court of appeal to challenge this decision.
Anticor executives fear “very negative impacts” on several politico-financial affairs in progress. The administrative court of Paris canceled, Friday June 23, the decree of April 2021 which had renewed the judicial approval allowing the association Anticor to intervene in justice in cases of fight against corruption, indicated to the AFP the president of the association and the plaintiffs’ lawyer. “The approval has been canceled with retroactive effect from April 2, 2021”Elise Van Benden, president of Anticor since 2020, told AFP. The association, created in 2002, is currently involved in 159 ongoing proceedings, according to its president.
In June 2021, two dissidents of the association took legal action, considering that the renewal procedure had been irregular and that Anticor did not meet the conditions required by the approval: independent and disinterested nature of its activities, information of its members on management, etc. At the hearing, on June 12, the public rapporteur, whose opinion is often followed, concluded that the approval should be annulled, considering that the contested order was “clearly tainted” of one “error of law”. The law “does not provide any possibility for the administration to override non-compliance” the conditions necessary to obtain the approval, “on the pretext that the association would undertake to comply with it for the future”she had argued in particular.
Two appeals filed before the Administrative Court of Appeal
Anticor intends to file two appeals before the Paris Administrative Court of Appeal, announced its president: one to challenge the substance of the decision and one “to request that the effects of the decision be suspended” in time. These appeals not being suspensive, “an application for a new license” will be quickly filed, specified the lawyer of the association. Anticor will hold a press conference in Paris on Friday at 4 p.m., in the presence of “Nupes and LR deputies who support the association”she added.
Anticor’s legal approval allows it to initiate proceedings by filing a complaint with civil action, which leads, with some exceptions, to the opening of a judicial investigation. It also allows him to become a civil party in anti-corruption proceedings already in progress and thus to access the file, to transmit documents, requests for acts or hearing of witnesses to the investigating judge.