the lawyers of Brice Hortefeux and the former president raised the incompetence of the court

Everyone is crowded around the former president (except obviously four defendants, on the run abroad), dark suits, serious tone and appropriate demeanor. These are the survivors of “the firm”, the all-powerful team devoted to Nicolas Sarkozy, Minister of the Interior in 2006, in a nod to John Grisham’s novel. They are under judicial control and theoretically do not have the right to speak to each other, but that does not stop them from saying hello.

The firm has taken a turn for the worse: Claude Guéant, Nicolas Sarkozy’s former right-hand man, walks with small, hesitant steps and is looking at the 80th birthday he will turn in a few days; Brice Hortefeux, his lifelong friend, has rare hair that is whiter than blonde. Nicolas Sarkozy’s good looks, on the other hand, are a kind testimony to his family vacation in the Seychelles. At the call of the court, which judges them from this Monday, January 6 for the Libyan financing of the 2007 presidential campaign, everyone says ” retirement “except Eric Woerth, who brazenly launches, “deputy” (from Oise), and Nicolas Sarkozy, ” lawyer “.

The first days of a trial which is due to last until April 10 are necessarily disappointing, entirely devoted to procedural questions, and the defendants have not had to say a word. It was David-Olivier Kaminsky – the lawyer for Khaled Bugshan, a rich Saudi who served as a safe for suspicious financial flows – who opened fire. “We are defending a man who did not fully understand why he found himself before your court”he assured, to the point that his client was not there. He assures that the businessman made a transfer “in two minutes”which led to him being prosecuted for four offenses.

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