Alexandre Benalla’s emotional “regrets” on the last day of his trial – archyworldys

“I’m not an angel, I don’t always do things right, otherwise I wouldn’t have gotten to where I am. “ It’s 9 p.m., Friday 1^er October, and the 10^e correctional chamber of the Paris court is preparing to conclude the twelfth and final day of the hearing of the Benalla case. The latter’s lawyer, M^e Jacqueline Laffont, has just completed a plea of ​​nearly three hours, conducted with M^e Charles Chambenois. She asked for the release of her client of the multiple heads of prevention against her. The president, Isabelle Prevost-Desprez, offered the defendants, as is their right, a final statement.

Only Alexandre Benalla wanted to do it. He begins by thanking the judges and his lawyer. “Sometimes you have to sit on the balcony and watch yourself go by in the street”, he begins, admitting: “I made an error in judgment on the 1^er may [2018], without a doubt. You had to stay in your place, as an observer. “ However, he does not depart from his constant argument, hammered out over twelve days of hearing: the “Willingness to be of service, as I have always done”, “this willingness to do well, to want to help”.

And suddenly, the armor cracks. His voice trembles, Mr. Benalla sniffs. “I want to express regret. ” First, to his three co-defendants: Vincent Crase, “My ten-year-old friend, whom I dragged into this mess, and I blame myself”.

M^e Christian Saint-Palais, lawyer for Vincent Crase, had at length developed, in defense of the former reservist gendarme and charged at the time with the security of the party La République en Marche (LRM), the applicability in this case of the famous article 73 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which gives any citizen witnessing an offense committed in flagrante delicto the capacity to question the perpetrator. On the other hand, he could only ask for mitigating circumstances for the carrying of a weapon admitted – belatedly – by Mr. Crase on 1^er May 2018 when he came to observe, alongside Mr. Benalla, the maintenance of order in Paris.

Regrets towards the other defendants

Mr. Benalla also expresses his regret towards the two accused police officers, Laurent Simonin and Maxence Creusat, implicated for having illegally entrusted him with images extracted from the CCTV cameras of the Paris Police Prefecture in order to help him in his defense. “I hope they can bounce back and get over it all. “

Their respective lawyers sought to justify their action by “The desire to allow an institution, the Elysee, to be able to restore the truth”, as pleaded by M^e Pauline Ragot, lawyer for Mr. Creusat alongside Mr.^e Thibault de Montbrial. The latter argued that, for Commissioner Creusat, “It is obvious that Alexandre Benalla is an empowered person”, the “Designated representative of the Palace”, founded to access these images.

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