Ex-European parliament deputy faces embezzlement allegation
A Paris judge has started legal action against a former European Parliament deputy for allegedly embezzling millions of euros and other suspected crimes, according to judicial officials.
Jean-Charles Marchiani, 60, was placed under investigation for “receiving stolen goods” in three cases: a 1988 hostage release and separate supply contracts for the French military and Paris airports authority in the 1980s, said officials who wished to remain anonymous.
Investigating judge Philippe Courroye is said to have sought to have Marchiani placed under provisional detention.
Marchiani, a conservative, lost his European Parliament seat – which afforded him some immunity from prosecution – in June. He is also a former French government official from the south-eastern Var region.
In a case of suspected money laundering, Marchiani was said to receive 58 million French francs in a deal to free hostages in Lebanon in the 1980s, when he was a government envoy sent to help win their release.
Those accusations first appeared ahead of French presidential elections in 2002, threatening to taint the re-election campaign of President Jacques Chirac, who was prime minister at the time.
French authorities have denied paying a ransom to free the hostages, and Marchiani has also denied profiting from his job as hostage negotiator.
Marchiani’s wife, Christiane, is also formally under investigation for money laundering in connection with the matter.
Marchiani also faces suspicions of influence trafficking and embezzlement in connection with the sale of gearboxes from a German company to the French defence ministry for use in Leclerc tanks, and a contract between a Dutch firm and the Paris airports authority over the sale of conveyor belts in the 1980s.
Marchiani has already been placed under investigation – a step short of formal charges – in connection with alleged financial kickbacks linked to arms sales to Angola and commissions paid by French oil titan Elf in Nigeria.
The allegations he has faced related to money laundering, embezzlement, forgery of documents, tax fraud, bribery and illegal trade in arms.
