Alexandre Benalla sentenced to three years in prison, including one closed, for the violence of May 1, 2018 – archyde

He was at the heart of a major political storm of the Macron five-year term. The Paris court sentenced, Friday, November 5, Alexandre Benalla to three years in prison, including one year firm, under an electronic bracelet.

The former Elysee mission manager was notably prosecuted for “violence in meetings” and “interference with the function of a police officer” during the 2018 International Workers’ Day event in the capital. The judgment goes well beyond the requisitions of the prosecution: during the trial in September, the prosecutor had requested eighteen months suspended imprisonment against the former close collaborator of Emmanuel Macron, now reconverted in the private sector.

Emmanuel Macron’s relative was also blamed for having carried a pistol without authorization in 2017 in Poitiers, as well as for having used, after his dismissal, two diplomatic passports during eleven trips and for producing a false document in order to obtain a service passport. During the hearing, the prosecution requested additional penalties of a fine of 500 euros, a ban from all public office for five years and from carrying a weapon for ten years.

Three other defendants were prosecuted: two police officers, Maxence Creusat and Laurent Simonin, as well as Vincent Crase, friend of Alexandre Benalla and former employee of La République en Marche. Vincent Crase, who was absent in court on Friday, was sentenced to two years’ suspended imprisonment, accompanied by the ban on carrying a weapon for ten years and a fine of 500 euros, according to the same sources. The public prosecutor had requested in September a year of suspended sentence against him. Maxime Creusat is sentenced to a 5,000 euros fine, and Laurent Simonin receives a three-month suspended prison sentence; these two sentences will not be entered in their criminal record.

Diplomatic passports

Describing a “Media tidal wave”, a “Cataclysm” for a man who was “Demonized”, the defense of the former member of Emmanuel Macron’s cabinet had pleaded for acquittal for all offenses, with the exception of the fraudulent use – recognized – of diplomatic passports.

His lawyers argued that he and Mr. Crase had “Helped to challenge” the perpetrators of a crime “Flagrant”, as permitted by law in certain circumstances, arguing that their actions were “Proportionate”. Prolix at the helm, Alexandre Benalla assured to have been “Fair, loyal, honest” and contested any “Willful violence”, claiming to have wanted “To challenge” from “Police attackers”.

The project manager had been identified by The world, July 18, 2018, on a video in which he appeared, wearing a helmet of the police, brutalizing a woman and a man, place de la Contrescarpe in Paris, at the end of a day of the 1^er-Mai enamelled with violence.

A member of the presidential cabinet, the 26-year-old young man was integrated into the police force that day as a simple observer. The article had triggered a political earthquake whose aftershocks had shaken the top of the state for many months, from revelations from the press to parliamentary committees.