the LDH and Utopia 56 file a complaint for complicity in crimes against humanity and complicity in torture against number 3 on the RN list

Fabrice Leggeri is the target of a complaint for complicity in crimes against humanity and complicity in torture, reveal franceinfo and Le Monde on Tuesday.

The Human Rights League and Utopia 56 filed a complaint in Paris on Tuesday April 23 for complicity in crimes against humanity and complicity in torture against Fabrice Leggeri, number 3 on the RN list for the European elections. , reveal franceinfo and The world.

From 2015 to 2022, Fabrice Leggeri served as Executive Director of Frontex, the European border and coast guard agency. In this complaint, he is accused of having actively facilitated illegal pushbacks at sea of ​​migrant boats as part of his duties.

Interception of migrant boats and obstacle to NGO intervention

The two associations believe that, when he was at the head of Frontex, Fabrice Leggeri allowed the interception of migrant boats by the Libyan coast guard, both by obstructing the intervention of NGOs present at sea , but also by delivering the GPS coordinates or aerial photos of these boats to the Libyan coast guard. However, the United Nations had established that these migrants, who sought to cross the Mediterranean, were exposed in Libya to the risks of physical and sexual violence, arbitrary detention, torture and slavery.

The 1951 Geneva Convention, relating to the status of refugees and their right to asylum, stipulates that at sea, when people are in danger, the principle must always be that of assistance and aid. The rules of the UN and the European Union impose the same uses.

The LDH and Utopia 56 also accuse Fabrice Leggeri of having facilitated the pushback of migrant boats from Greece to Turkey, by refusing, says the complaint, to relay their distress signals. The complaint also accuses him of having concealed these operations, by not mentioning them in the reports of the Frontex agency, and finally of having obstructed the referral to the fundamental rights officer in charge of monitoring the operations of Frontex.

To draft this complaint, the LDH and Utopia 56 rely in particular on a report from the European Anti-Fraud Office, which precisely revealed illegal practices and called into question the role of Fabrice Leggeri, of whom he The dirigisme in his position as number 1 of Frontex was also underlined. The conclusions of this report forced Fabrice Leggeri to resign in 2022. Less than two years later, last February, the man who was trained at the ENA and spent his entire career in the senior civil service announced that he was joining the list of the National Rally, led by Jordan Bardella, for the European elections on June 9.

“Totally incorrect allegations”

Fabrice Leggeri, contacted by franceinfo, believes that “These allegations” “are completely incorrect”. He sees “completely political maneuvers to [le] discredit and discredit the RN list during the European elections”. ⁠”When I was director of Frontex from 2015 to 2022, the European agency rescued more than 350,000 migrants at sea in accordance with international law of the sea”adds the RN candidate. It indicates that “Complaints for defamation are already being prepared against several members of LFI who have publicly made these kinds of totally unfounded accusations.” On his X account on Tuesday, he added that “the RN is the only bulwark against the intellectual terrorism that the far left and its NGOs are bringing to bear on France and Europe to dismantle the very idea of ​​border control.”

“The qualification of complicity in a crime against humanity is a criminal and serious qualification, but what is more serious is letting tens of thousands of men, women and children die in the Mediterranean, it is to favor their forced transfer to slavery centers in Libya”estimates Emmanuel Daoud, the lawyer for the Human Rights League. “From the moment they are in boats, we must not turn them back, we must welcome them and we must save them. Mr. Leggeri has forgotten this and he will have to answer for it,” he concludes.

The 53-page complaint with the constitution of a civil party concerning Fabrice Leggeri was filed this Tuesday afternoon with the dean of the investigating judges of the Paris judicial court. A German NGO, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rightshad asked the International Criminal Court in The Hague two years ago to open an investigation into the role of several senior officials, including Fabrice Leggeri, in these pushbacks of migrant boats between 2018 and 2021.