French senators say Macron aide should be prosecuted for perjury | World news | The Guardian 20/2/19 12'53

French senators say Macron aide

should be prosecuted for perjury
Senate president to decide whether to file complaint against
Alexandre Benalla after investigation

Reuters in Paris
Wed 20 Feb 2019
11.48 GMT

Alexandre Benalla arrives at a Paris courthouse. Photograph: Geoffroy van der Hasselt/AFP/Getty
Images

A French senate committee has recommended prosecuting Alexandre Benalla, the former
security aide of the French president, Emmanuel Macron, for perjury following a seven-
month investigation into Benalla’s violent conduct during a street protest.

Benalla was caught on video last year beating a May Day protester while wearing a police
armband. Macron and his senior aides faced widespread criticism for being slow to come
clean on the facts, prompting allegations of a cover-up.

In presenting their report on Benalla’s actions, the senators touched on “major dysfunction”
inside the president’s office and said they believed there was evidence that Macron’s
security had been compromised.

“What happened on May Day now appears to be the tip of the iceberg,” Philippe Bas, a
senator from the opposition centre-right Les Republicains party and head of the
investigative committee, told reporters.
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French senators say Macron aide should be prosecuted for perjury | World news | The Guardian 20/2/19 12'53

It is now up to the senate’s president to decide whether to follow through on the

recommendations of the committee and file a complaint with the prosecutor’s office.

Lying to parliament under oath is punishable by up to five years in prison and a

€75,000(£65,000) fine.

Benalla, a former security adviser, was eventually sacked. Although there has been no
suggestion of wrongdoing by Macron, the French leader’s defiant reaction to the scandal
precipitated a drop in his popularity ratings.

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Topics
Emmanuel Macron
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Europe
May Day
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