Two years of detention, including 18 months suspended, were required on Monday once morest the former LR mayor of Corbeil-Essonnes and ex-right-hand man of Serge Dassault, Jean-Pierre Bechter, tried on appeal alongside four people for suspicion of buying votes during the municipal elections of 2009 and 2010.
Mr. Bechter, now 77, was “participant in this vote-buying system,” said the prosecutor in his indictment.
The prosecution demanded two years of house arrest once morest him under an electronic bracelet, including 18 months suspended, a fine of 15,000 euros, 10 years of ineligibility and five years of prohibition of the right to vote for purchase of votes and financing illegal election campaign.
He requested 12 months of detention including 10 months suspended, 15,000 euros fine, five years of ineligibility and five years of prohibition of the right to vote once morest the former deputy mayor Jacques Lebigre, 80 years old.
During the trial at first instance, Mr. Bechter and Lebigre had been sentenced to two years of house arrest under an electronic bracelet.
The prosecutor has also requested a 12-month suspended prison sentence once morest former deputy Christelle de Oliveira, prosecuted for laundering illegal campaign financing and concealment. At first instance, she was sentenced to 18 months in prison, including one year under an electronic bracelet.
At first instance, the criminal court sentenced six people in total, on December 17, 2020, for their participation in a pyramid scheme of electoral corruption fueled by the fortune of billionaire Serge Dassault, who died in 2018.
According to the prosecution, the scheme consisted of recruiting teams from working-class neighborhoods to convince residents to vote for the Bechter list in exchange for money, promises of housing or jobs.
In 2009, Serge Dassault, RPR then UMP mayor of this town in Essonne since 1995, was declared ineligible, due to suspicious “donations of money”.
He then handed over to Jean-Pierre Bechter who won a first by-election in 2009, once more invalidated for irregular ballots. Mr. Bechter finally won in 2010.
Only MM. Bechter, Lebigre and Ms. de Oliveira were present at the hearing.
Sentenced to two years in prison for having been an intermediary, Younès Bounouara only appealed the confiscation of 150,000 euros and the refusal by the court to confuse his sentence with that of 15 years which he is currently serving for an attempt to assassination, linked to these suspicions of vote buying.
Machiré Gassama, former director of the city’s youth and sports service, who had been sentenced to a year in prison under bracelet for having been a linchpin of the system, finally withdrew.
Finally, Mounir Labidi, a former municipal agent sentenced in his absence to two years in prison, is still on the run.
The trial is due to end on Tuesday.
