France: Dismisses Benalla Safe Case

A Paris investigative judge has dismissed a probe into the possible concealment of evidence alleged to underlie the disappearance of a safe belonging to former Elysee Palace mission manager Alexandre Benalla, the Paris prosecutor’s office said on Friday, following a request from AFP.

One of Mr Benalla’s secret safes, which he used specifically to store weapons, was no longer located in his apartment during a search carried out at the start of the scandal in July 2018, which ultimately led to his one-year prison sentence for the violence on May 1 of that year.

The Paris prosecutor’s office said the examining magistrate ordered the case dismissed on June 27 following a request from the prosecutor’s office in March.

The prosecutor continued: “It is possible that the items in the boxes removed from Alexandre Benalla’s home contained evidence in the investigation being conducted against him, but this cannot be confirmed.”

The prosecution further stated: “In the absence of this element and the investigation did not reveal an intent to prejudice the manifestation of truth, the case is ordered to be dismissed.” When asked, Mr. Benalla’s lawyer Jacqueline Lafont did not immediately respond.

“This is not me”

Six years after the scandal rocked Emmanuel Macron’s first five-year term, the judiciary has closed the department, which was opened in February 2019 and raised suspicions of high-level deception of justice.

Alexandre Benalla told investigators in the summer of 2018 that the safe “must have been taken to a safe place, but not in my care.”

A year and a half later, one of the protagonists of the incident, soldier Chokri Wakrim, implicated two members of the presidency. In January 2020, he told the Criminal Brigade that he saw them in front of the first safe in the Paris apartment of Mr. Benalla’s relatives.

Chokri-Vakrim also claimed to have witnessed a conversation in which Alexandre Benalla allegedly asked one of the two presidential members to empty a second safe, presumably located in his office at the Elysee Palace, the contents of which were allegedly packed in a sports bag.

The photo of Alexandre Benalla in the Place de la Contrescarpe in Paris on May 1, 2018, sparked a political storm in July of the same year, when Le Monde identified the close friend of Emmanuel Macron under a police helmet.

In June, the Supreme Court rejected his appeal and ultimately sentenced him to one year in prison.

AFP

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