“I am innocent, still standing”, assures the Norman mayor of Canteleu during her wishes

The mayor of Canteleu (Seine-Maritime) reaffirmed her innocence on Monday during her vows, while the judges ordered her referral to the criminal court.

“I am innocent, still standing”, reacts, Monday January 15, the mayor of Canteleu (Seine-Maritime) during her wishes, after her referral to a criminal court for “drug trafficking complicity”, reports France Bleu Normandie.

Mélanie Boulanger spoke in front of several hundred people on Monday evening to present her wishes. After more than 20 minutes of speech, she spoke about this “deafening news marked by a new attack on the presumption of innocence and yet another violation of investigative secrecy.”

“I’m not lowering my head.”

The Norman elected official described herself as “person of integrity, honesty and honesty”. She said to herself “victim of a double relentlessness” : at a time “media and judicial”. She confides being “shaken” but hold “standing before you”. “I don’t kneel down and I don’t bow my head”she added.

The elected socialist and her deputy, Hasbi Colak, are being prosecuted for “drug trafficking complicity”. They are both referred to a criminal court. On Friday, the judges decided to follow the requisitions of the Bobigny prosecutor’s office which had requested their dismissal at the end of December, as well as that of 17 other people suspected of being involved in vast drug trafficking in this town near Rouen.

Mélanie Boulanger, figure of the Rouen PS and head of the PS-EELV list for the 2021 regional elections, is suspected of having surrendered “accomplice by aid or assistance to the offenses of transport, acquisition, possession and unauthorized offer or transfer of narcotics”according to the prosecution’s requisitions.

She, who has always proclaimed her innocence, as well as her deputy, were placed in police custody on October 8, 2021 during an anti-narcotics raid, then released the next day. In total, nineteen people were placed in police custody as part of a judicial investigation opened in September 2019 for drug trafficking and criminal conspiracy and led by a judge from Bobigny.

His deputy, Hasbi Colak, in charge of economic development, is suspected in particular of having provided information to traffickers about police checks or of having made his company vehicle available to them.