The boss of the DGSE soon in the dock. Bernard Bajolet will appear before the Bobigny judicial court for arbitrary infringement of individual freedom by a person holding public authority. Businessman Alain Duménil accuses the intelligence service, and therefore Bernard Bajolet, of having used coercion to demand money from him in 2016. In March of that year, this Franco-Swiss involved in a plethora of legal cases and commercial disputes, is preparing to board for Geneva at Roissy airport. At the Air France counter, he is checked by two border police officials who invite him to follow them to the police station.
In the room, he finds himself facing two plainclothes DGSE agents. Presenting themselves as “the State”, they explain that it must reimburse 15 million euros to France. To support their request, they show him photos of him and his family, taken in England and Switzerland. According to Alain Duménil, they made threats.
The businessman loses his temper and announces he is filing a complaint. The agents, whose names the DGSE has never revealed to the courts, disappear. In her order dated October 23 and of which AFP was aware, the investigating judge followed the requisitions of the Bobigny public prosecutor’s office by referring Bernard Bajolet to the Seine-Saint-Denis criminal court, competent for the airport of Roissy.
The investigating magistrate considers that there are “sufficient charges” against him to characterize complicity in attempted extortion “by instructions given to carry out an interview of which he knew the place and the conditions of carrying out (…) these conditions inducing the use of coercion and making the use of pressure during this interview more than likely”.
At the head of the French foreign intelligence services from April 2013 to May 2017 before retiring, Bernard Bajolet was indicted in October 2022. “This trial, beyond being that of Bernard Bajolet, will be that of the DGSE and the misuse of its missions for private purposes; this trial will also be that of the DGSE’s vain attempt to make Alain Duménil the scapegoat for its turpitudes”reacted in a press release William Bourdon and Nicolas Huc-Morel, lawyers for the plaintiff. Contacted by AFP, the DGSE did not wish to comment on an ongoing legal process.
“Private heritage”
During his questioning before the investigating judge, Bernard Bajolet explained that he had only validated the principle of an interview at the airport but had not gone into the details of its implementation. According to him, the objective was a short and unconstrained contact. Alain Duménil has been a pet peeve of the DGSE since a dispute dating back more than two decades.
Since the end of the First World War, foreign intelligence services have managed a “private heritage” entrusted by the State in a desire for independence of the institution in the event of foreign occupation or disappearance of the government. This heritage is legal and part of it – the special funds – appears in the state budget but it nevertheless escapes any control. According to security sources interviewed by AFP, the amount of this heritage is not officially known. Several investments are made by the DGSE, particularly abroad.
At the end of the 1990s, the DGSE made unsuccessful investments in a company. A decade later, in an exchange of shares, Alain Duménil became a majority shareholder in this company and sold shares in his holding company to the DGSE. He subsequently transferred the shares of the holding company held by the DGSE into three other companies that he also held.
The holding company is put into liquidation. In the resulting legal proceedings, the businessman was indicted for bankruptcy. The DGSE estimates that Alain Duménil owes it 15 million euros, including three in interest.
Source: www.liberation.fr
