Lagarde gave up immunity to contest accusations, case based on unproven embezzlement - defence lawyer

Record ID: 76889

  • Title: Lagarde gave up immunity to contest accusations, case based on unproven embezzlement - defence lawyer
  • Date: 12th December 2016
  • Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (DECEMBER 12, 2016) (REUTERS) ****WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** LAWYER FOR DIRECTOR GENERAL OF THE IMF CHRISTINE LAGARDE, PATRICK MAISONNEUVE, LEAVING COURTROOM, WALKING TOWARDS JOURNALISTS VARIOUS OF MAISONNEUVE TALKING TO JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (French) LAWYER FOR DIRECTOR GENERAL OF THE IMF CHRISTINE LAGARDE, PATRICK MAISONNEUVE, SAYING: "It's about common sense. Today Christine Lagarde is being prosecuted for negligence which allowed the embezzlement of public money but this embezzlement of public money -- yet to be proven because we know nothing for sure -- is the subject of another legal case. And in that case, the people under investigation deny the existence of any embezzlement of public money. So how can the Cour de Justice de la Republique (the special court trying Lagarde) say within a few days that there has been embezzlement of public money when it's an element in other numerous and complex investigations? That doesn't seem reasonable to me. It's a matter of good judicial process, but it's also a matter of common sense which I think anyone could understand." JOURNALISTS LISTENING MAISONNEUVE TALKING TO JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (French) LAWYER FOR DIRECTOR GENERAL OF THE IMF CHRISTINE LAGARDE, PATRICK MAISONNEUVE, SAYING: "Christine Lagarde had asked during the investigation, and asked again today, for her immunity from prosecution to be lifted, because she as the Director General of the IMF she benefits from immunity, she asked herself for that immunity to be lifted so that she was able to come and justify herself in court. Christine Lagarde wants to set aside the accusations which are levelled at her, she wants to contest them. She has physically come here in person, she'll be here for the whole of the trial." VARIOUS OF MAISONNEUVE RE-ENTERING COURTROOM
  • Embargoed: 27th December 2016 15:21
  • Keywords: Christine Lagarde IMF court Bernard Tapie payout Patrick Maisonneuve
  • Location: PARIS, FRANCE
  • City: PARIS, FRANCE
  • Country: France
  • Reuters ID: LVA0015CKXOW7
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text:Christine Lagarde's lawyer questioned the very basis for her trial on Monday (December 12) as the International Monetary Fund chief faced a special court in Paris charged with negligence over her role in a 400 million euro ($424 million) payout of taxpayer money to businessman Bernard Tapie in 2008.
    Lagarde, 60, was France's finance minister in the government of then-president Nicolas Sarkozy when she approved an out-of-court settlement with Tapie to end a long-running dispute between the magnate and the French state.
    Accused of negligence leading to misuse of public funds, she denies any wrongdoing. She risks up to a year in jail and a fine of 15,000 euros ($15,895) if convicted.
    Speaking during a break in proceedings on Monday, Lagarde's lawyer Patrick Maisonneuve told journalists that the misuse of public funds itself had yet to be demonstrated in other cases which were still ongoing.
    "How can the Cour de Justice de la Republique (the special court trying Lagarde) say within a few days that there has been embezzlement of public money when it's an element in other numerous and complex investigations? That doesn't seem reasonable to me. It's a matter of good judicial process, but it's also a matter of common sense which I think anyone could understand," he said.
    Lagarde was keen to be heard, he said, and had requested that the immunity from prosecution she benefited from be lifted.
    "She asked herself for that immunity to be lifted so that she was able to come and justify herself in court. Christine Lagarde wants to set aside the accusations which are levelled at her, she wants to contest them. She has physically come here in person, she'll be here for the whole of the trial," he said.
    Were she to be convicted, a maximum sentence could raise questions about the widely respected policymaker's ability to continue as head of the Washington-based IMF, where her predecessor France's Dominique Strauss Kahn, quit in 2011 over a sex assault scandal.
    Her trial is only the fifth to be held before the Cour de Justice de la Republique, a special tribunal created in 1993 to try cabinet ministers.
    A panel of 15, including 12 lawmakers from both the lower and upper houses of parliament, will hear the case, which is scheduled to run until December 20.
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