MARIGOT--Territorial Councillor for the majority party René-Jean Duret was cleared of any wrong doing by the court in Marigot on Thursday in the conflict of interest case brought against him in February 2013.

 

President of the Tribunal Gérard Egron-Reverseau in his verdict said there was "insufficient proof" of any conflict of interest occurring or any intent on the part of Duret to commit wrong doing.

 

The verdict comes as an immense relief to Duret who was questioned for nearly two hours on the stand by the judge on September 17 and had spent one day in custody (garde à vue). He was facing a charge of "prise d'intérêt illegal" (conflict of interest) because of his dual roles held as Director of Operations for Semsamar and Territorial Councillor for the Collectivité.

Duret, an engineer by profession, retired from Semsamar in December 31, 2013. The Collectivité is a majority 51 per cent shareholder in the mixed capital company.

 

In November 2013 he attended a preliminary hearing where his lawyer Maitre Jean-Yves Leborgne deferred the case pending clarification from the Constitutional Court on the articles of the criminal code relating to conflicts of interest. The judge and prosecutor at the time agreed that this was not clear. According to Duret the National Assembly is lobbying for a new law about conflict of interest.

 

"The articles are badly defined in the penal code but Cour de Cassation (appeals court) doesn't like to have another court above them making judgements so they transfer only ten per cent of the clarifications on constitutionality, and in my case it was not even sent so we are back to the beginning again," Duret said at the time. "This is more about the potential for conflict of interest. Yet there is no proof of conflict of interest, no material facts, no victims, and no formal complaints.

 

"I am the only victim here, spending a lot of time and money to prove my innocence. I am supposed to be presumed innocent until proven guilty but in the French system it does not come across that way. It is a witch hunt; they are trying to find something to pin on me. I stopped following projects with the Collectivité as soon as I was elected to the Territorial Council."

 

Prosecutor Noailles argued the two roles should have been more clearly defined to avoid a blurring of the lines. He said it was not enough to say there is no conflict of interest but to give an appearance of a conflict of interest confuses people and he (Duret) had an obligation to make this clear.

Noailles had called for a six-month suspended prison sentence and a 50,000 euro fine.

 

The Daily Herald