Index – Abroad – A French judge was detained on suspicion of embezzlement

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Proceedings have been launched against a French judge on 11 charges in the context of proceedings initiated due to her suspected relationship with a member of Corsican organized crime, the prosecutor’s office in Nice in the south of France announced on Saturday. The judge was remanded in custody, MTI published.

The defendant, Hélene Gerhards, was the president of the jury in Agen, southwest France, until January 2023.

Suspicion of judges by the prosecutor’s office is unprecedented in France.

Among other things, the judge is accused of embezzlement of public funds, falsification of public documents, influence peddling and criminal conspiracy. The investigation launched in January 2021 concerns crimes allegedly committed between 2008 and 2022, primarily during the judge’s mandate in Corsica, between 2010 and 2016.

According to the prosecutor’s office in Nice, the embezzled amount can be estimated at more than 120,000 euros, i.e. 46.8 million forints.

At the end of the 20-count investigation, two investigating judges suspected the judge in 11 counts, this is included in the indictment of the Nice prosecutor’s office, which also ordered the preliminary arrest of Hélene Gerhards.

“Telephone taps” revealed that the judge, who was taken into custody on Wednesday, “appears to have been in close contact with a person known to the police in a very unfavorable light, particularly in relation to the work carried out at his villa on the south coast of Ajaccio, Corsica,” he wrote. the prosecutor’s office in its statement on Friday.

This 320-square-meter “architect-designed villa” with “exceptional sea views, (…) a stone’s throw from the beach,” with a “swimming pool and jacuzzi,” can be rented for up to €2,260 a night during the summer, according to a property listing, AFP noted. news agency.

According to sources close to the case, the suspect connection of the judge is Johann Carta, who was charged in several cases and imprisoned for this reason, namely in December 2023 in the case of “fraud, extortion and money laundering committed in an organized crime syndicate”.

The judge – it seems – maintained regular contact with other persons known to the police (…) in exchange for mutual services, the prosecutor added. Among the services provided, according to the investigation, in addition to legal advice, the judge could also provide information on ongoing proceedings.

According to the prosecutor’s office, during her interrogation in police custody, the judge “first denied any crime and the violation of her professional obligations” and then admitted that she “illegally obtained information for the benefit of a person known unfavorably by the police.”

The judge’s lawyers, Caty Richard and Yann Le Bras, told AFP that after “finally having access to the material of the three-year, persistent investigation”, they had “already found elements that cast doubt on the prosecution’s claim”. “Other procedural solutions would have been possible, but the prosecution chose the path of institutional violence,” the lawyers said.

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