Karim Achoui sentenced for illegal exercise of the legal profession

Former lawyer Karim Achoui was sentenced, Monday, February 5, to a daily fine of 18,000 euros for continuing to practice his profession illegally in 2015-2016. The courts had previously permanently disbarred him from the bar in France, notably for “ethical breaches”.

Karim Achoui, who was accused by the courts of having pleaded six times before French courts, will have to pay 5,000 euros for moral damage to the council of the Bar Association, civil party. He immediately announced his intention to appeal this conviction.

Also found guilty of breach of trust

Before the Paris criminal court, the 56-year-old man, known for having defended figures of organized crime, argued that he had registered in February 2015 with the Algiers bar, almost three years after his dismissal. definitive in France. According to him, he should therefore benefit from the Franco-Algerian convention of 1962 which stipulates that lawyers “registered with an Algerian bar” can practice in France “under the same conditions as lawyers registered with a French bar”.

For the court, however, this agreement aims to “allow one-off activity in France for Algerian lawyers” and not to “organize the continuation of his activities in France by a former French lawyer permanently disbarred in France”. The criminal court also found him guilty of breach of trust, in a case relating to a sum of around 10,000 euros paid by one of his clients, explained to AFP Karim Achoui’s defender, Christian Saint- Palace.