"They brought him to the airport police station, where two plain-clothes DGSE agents told him he must reimburse the French state €15 million. The agents, whose identities are being kept secret, used "threats", according to a judicial source, notably by showing him, "a photo album of himself and members of his family, to make him understand that he and his loved ones were being watched and followed". The businessman became enraged and announced he would file a complaint. The agents left."
"Bajolet, now 76, confirmed he had authorised the operation but said that he had not given any order to subordinates "to use any kind of coercion". "Things didn't go as they should," he acknowledged. Commenting on the behaviour of the DGSE agents, he said: "That's not at all what I authorised, that's not at all how I saw things." "Perhaps I acted a little hastily," he said, adding that he had "other concerns" at that time, which was marked by several militant attacks in Europe."
Bernard Bajolet, former head of France's DGSE, faces charges of complicity in an alleged attempt to extort €15 million from businessman Alain Dumenil and of arbitrarily infringing individual freedom. Dumenil was stopped at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport in March 2016 and taken to an airport police station, where two plain-clothes DGSE agents demanded repayment and showed him a photo album implying surveillance of him and his family. Bajolet acknowledged authorising the operation but denied ordering any coercion, saying the agents' conduct "didn't go as they should" and that he had not authorised threats. The case raises issues about the use of state resources.
Read at The Local France
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]