"Chaufferie de la Défense": the Versailles Court of Appeal confirms the annulment of the proceedings

The Versailles court of appeal confirmed on Wednesday the extremely rare cancellation of a vast trial for corruption, that of the "boiler room of the Defense", which had been pronounced in January by the judicial court of Nanterre because of the "duration unreasonable "of the investigation.

The court recognized "the unreasonable nature of the procedure" thus undermining "the right to a fair trial, the adversarial principle, the balance of the rights of the parties as well as the right of defense", declared the president. of the 9th bedroom.

Five business leaders, two of whom are now 98 and 83 years old, were to appear in January in a highly anticipated trial, after twenty years of investigation.

They were accused of having distorted, between 1999 and 2003, the award of the lucrative La Défense heating and air conditioning market, estimated at several hundred million euros.

But exceptional rebound: on the first day of the trial, on January 11, the court decided to cancel the entire investigation procedure, considering that the right of defendants to be tried within a reasonable time had not been respected and had brought attack on their defense.

This "unreasonable duration deprives two of the main defendants of their ability to fully defend themselves" because of "disorders related to old age and their state of health", had justified the president of the chamber Olivier Protard.

The prosecution then appealed, arguing in particular that there was no "old age excuse" to be granted.

On Wednesday, the Versailles court of appeal ruled in favor of the Nanterre court.

"After Nanterre the Versailles Court of Appeal sets the record straight. We cannot in France, judge a centenary 25 years after the fact", declared to AFP Me Baratelli, representing the interests of Jean Bonnefont , former leader of the former Charbonnages de France.

"We salute the lucidity and the sense of the law of the magistrates of the court", reacted to AFP Emmanuel Mercinier and Emmanuel Daoud, lawyers of the businessman Antoine Benetti, as well as Me François Saint-Pierre, lawyer by Bernard Forterre, the former number 3 of the Compagnie Générale des Eaux-Vivendi.