The case was postponed because of the epidemic of Covid-19, but the proceedings are not abandoned for all and justice will follow its course, according to the expression consecrated. Georges Mela, mayor of Porto-Vecchio, and his cabinet director Pierre Alessandrini, were to be tried on 17 April in front of the correctional court of Ajaccio (Corse-du-Sud) for "attempted fraud" and " complicity in attempt at swindle ". The record, set by the former attorney-in-title, Eric Bouillard, will finally be examined on 8 December.
The heads of prevention retained emit a smell of sulfur, but the facts are much more down-to-earth. Here's the story : it is alleged that the chief magistrate of this lively seaside resort to have produced in court, under the pen of his cabinet director, a certificate entitling his son to contest a fine of 135 euros ; the latter had been sentenced to this PV after being parked on a parking space reserved for persons with disabilities, rue Napoléon, 150 metres from the town hall. Detail funny : it is an agent of the municipal police who observed the offense and drew up a report. As far as the law allows, Mr. Mela, the owner of the vehicle, raised an objection before the tribunal de police by producing a certificate from the director of the municipal police, drafted in fact by his " dircab ", on the headed paper of the City, and claiming that the location for the disabled had a " no signaling ". To be clear : the agent verbalisateur would have sinned by excess of zeal while the son was parked at a place called in good faith.
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Clearly, this system of defence was not to the liking of the prosecutor of Ajaccio, which, by means of which we will probably never have the ins and outs, has smelled a " maneuver ". And this is how " inconvenient parking ", contravention of the 4th class, could turn into a scam, a crime punishable – in theory at least – seven years of imprisonment because the mayor is " custodian of the public authority ". The scam involves "a fraudulent scheme" (the false statement, according to the public prosecutor) and the " surrender a thing ", which here takes the form of an " act concerning the discharge of an obligation ".
"Pipi de chat"
A source close to the investigation, it was beautiful to qualify the case of the " pee pee de chat ", Georges Mela would have no doubt spent this new controversy, a few weeks of the second round of the municipal elections. According to a source close to city hall, it could be a settlement of accounts between him and a part of his municipal police, with whom relations would become "very bad" at the end of its mandate. This contested Pierre Alessandrini, the "dircab" the mayor, a presumed accomplice of his boss, in this case picrocholine : "When you see the classification adopted, we can be afraid, to think, on urban planning, public procurement, organised fraud, and say : "My God, what is happening in Porto-Vecchio ?" (laughter) In reality, it is a case could not be more clear. The mayor, who is not above the law, but not below it either, went to see on the spot when he received the ticket. He was able to see, as the chief of the municipal police, the director of technical services and myself, that the signaling of the location was totally obsolete. Fifteen days later, things had been reconditioned. To defend themselves, the mayor has therefore sent the court a paper of the municipal police, which I've actually written the frame, to contest the offence and that has obviously alerted Mr. attorney. You know, it is not up to the city hall of Paris. Here, each deals with a little bit of everything ", she defends it.
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Before adding with a long sigh : "If there is that it as a scam, it is quiet. It is exaggerated, you cannot find, this whole story, to a fine eventually reduced to 90 euros ? But finally, it is necessary to go explain himself before the court, we will go. "And warn, the author of these lines :" Beware, to handle cases like this, you're going to end dogs be crushed ! "(re-laughter).
In the poll of 15 march, the list of Mr. Mela, candidate at his succession, had collected 40,09 % of the vote and was ranked second behind that of his rival regionalist Jean-Christophe Angelini (44,49 % of the votes) and ahead of another candidate, nationalist, Don Mathieu Santini (15,41 %).
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