ten months suspended prison sentence and 15,000 euros fine required against the Minister of Labor

The former mayor of Annonay (Ardèche) has been on trial since Monday in Paris for suspicion of favoritism in the context of a public contract in 2009.

After that of Eric Dupond-Moretti, the trial of another member of the government in office is underway. The National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) requested, Wednesday, November 29, ten months of suspended imprisonment and a fine of 15,000 euros against the Minister of Labor, Olivier Dussopt, for favoritism. He has been on trial since Monday in Paris for suspicion of favoritism in the context of a public market in 2009, when he was mayor of Annonay (Ardèche).

The PNF did not request a penalty of ineligibility against the minister, in view of “the age of the facts”. He also requested eight months of suspended imprisonment and a fine of 15,000 euros against Olivier Brousse, former general director of Saur. Against this drinking water supply company, the PNF requested a fine of 1 million euros and a three-year suspended exclusion from public contracts.

The minister proclaims his “good faith”

“I hope that this hearing will allow me to establish my good faith,” the Minister of Labor, 45, declared Monday before the Paris criminal court, in a statement modeled on his previous public expressions on the subject of this trial. He thus repeated his satisfaction that, of the five grievances initially targeted by the preliminary investigation, opened in May 2020 after an article by Mediapart, “the prosecution (has) chosen to classify four of them.”

He remains prosecuted for favoritism, an offense which emerges, according to the PNF, from two documents seized from his home in August 2020: the report of an interview with Olivier Brousse in July 2009, discussing the amount of a contract and the criteria of the call for tenders, and an email from the elected official sent shortly after to his services, asking to change several of these criteria.