The prosecution appeals the acquittal of François Bayrou in the case of the European parliamentary assistants of the MoDem

The prosecution announced that it would appeal the acquittal of François Bayrou, Thursday February 8, in the case of the MoDem parliamentary assistants. Stéphane Thérou and Pierre-Emmanuel Portheret, two former relaxed centrist executives, are also affected by this decision.

“The prosecution contests these acquittals, considers that the facts characterize the offenses charged and that the evidence of these offenses is gathered against all the defendants”, specified the prosecution in a press release signed by the public prosecutor Laure Beccuau. The appeal from the prosecution comes the day after the decision of the head of the MoDem not to join the government of Gabriel Attal due to the “derivative“from the executive towards a “managerial technocracy”.

At first instance, the mayor of Pau was not given the “benefit of the doubt”. The former minister appeared at the Paris criminal court on October 16 to November 21 for “complicity in embezzlement of European public funds”, with ten party executives and centrist elected officials at his side. During the trial, the prosecution had requested a 30-month suspended prison sentence, a 70,000 euro fine and three years of ineligibility also accompanied by a suspended sentence against the High Commissioner for Planning.