The deputy Les Républicains Ian Boucard again in court for a five-year-old case. The elected representative of the first constituency of the Territory of Belfort is summoned at the beginning of the afternoon this Thursday by the Besançon Court of Appeal. He must be tried again about falsely imputed tracts to La France insoumise and the National Front and who called for a vote against Christophe Grudler, his main opponent in the 2017 legislative elections.
Continuation (and end?) of a political and judicial soap opera
Ian Boucard had been convicted at first instance, in June 2020, for “fraudulent maneuvers”. The prosecutor of Besançon, Etienne Manteaux, found the sentence too light: 7500 euros fine, while the prosecution had requested three years of ineligibility in addition to the fine. A sentence that would have prevented Ian Boucard from representing himself in 2022. The prosecution therefore appealedthinking of obtaining a new judgment before the elections.
The problem is that the judgment suffered a series of postponements. The hearing scheduled for July 2021 was postponed to December 2021, then to February 2022, and finally today. Ian Boucard still risks ineligibility, even though he was re-elected with more than 61% of the vote. If the prosecution goes to the end of its approach, and the Court of Appeal follows its requisitions, we would then be faced with an unprecedented legal and political situation.