Request for the waiver of the immunity of Marie-Christine Boutonnet

The European Parliament decided to waive the immunity of Marie-Christine BOUTONNET (ENF, FR).

The request was forwarded on 14 April 2017 by the Ministry of Justice of the French Republic on the basis of a request of the Prosecutor-General at the Paris Court of Appeal, with a view to waiving the immunity of Marie-Christine Boutonnet in connection with a case pending before Examining Magistrates at the Paris Regional Court (“pôle financier”) pertaining to a judicial investigation on grounds of, inter alia, breach of trust in connection with funds received by virtue of the parliamentary assistant’s contract of a named individual.

The examining magistrates considered that the investigations conducted during the preliminary inquiry and the judicial investigation suggest that the initial suspicions raised by the European Parliament regarding a certain number of parliamentary assistants of Members of the European Parliament affiliated to the Front National may be justified.

Given that there was no evidence of fumus persecutionis, particularly in view of the fact that proceedings are under way on the basis of similar charges against Members belonging to other Political Groups and of other nationalities, Parliament decided to waive the parliamentary immunity of Marie-Christine Boutonnet.