Defence lawyer for French surgeon who sexually abused 299 found dead

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Lawyer Maxime Tessier, pictured during the trial of Joël Le Scouarnec in Vannes, north-west France. © Photo Raphaël Lafargue / Abaca Lawyer Maxime Tessier, pictured during the trial of Joël Le Scouarnec in Vannes, north-west France. © Photo Raphaël Lafargue / Abaca

Lawyer Maxime Tessier, 33, a defence counsel for former surgeon Joël Le Scouarnec, who was handed a 20-year jail sentence in May for variously raping and sexually assaulting 299 victims, mostly child patients, died in an apparent suicide overnight on Tuesday. Amid the shocked reactions to Tessier’s death, which one psychiatrist said may have been the result of vicarious trauma caused by the horror of Le Scouarnec’s crimes, a number criticised the lack of psychological support offered to lawyers faced with such harrowing cases. Hugo Lemonier and Mathilde Mathieu report.

Rafale fighter jet sale to India: questions over role of François Hollande and partner Julie Gayet

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 © Illustration Sébastien Calvet/Mediapart © Illustration Sébastien Calvet/Mediapart

A criminal investigation was launched in France in 2021 over the sale of 36 Dassault Aviation Rafale fighter aircraft to India in a deal concluded in 2016 and worth 7.8 billion euros. The judge-led probe is examining the involvement of India's Reliance Group, owned and run by businessman Anil Ambani, who became Dassault's industrial partner in the massive contract signed by the French and Indian governments. Detectives are also looking into the funding by Anil Ambani's company at the same time of a film produced by actor and producer Julie Gayet, the partner of the then French president François Hollande. She has been questioned by detectives as part of the investigation. Will the former president himself now be interviewed? Karl Laske reports.

The crucial final hurdles facing culture minister Rachida Dati in her bid to be mayor of Paris

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Candidate to be Paris mayor? Rachida Dati. © Photo Chang Martin / Sipa Candidate to be Paris mayor? Rachida Dati. © Photo Chang Martin / Sipa

For culture minister Rachida Dati the stakes this summer  could not be much higher. She is overseeing legislation on the reform of public broadcasting – which got off to a bad start on Monday when the National Assembly voted not to discuss it - has been taking a close personal interest in impending moves to change the electoral system in Paris, and is facing her own legal troubles in an ongoing criminal investigation. Indeed, these next ten days will be critical for the culture minister as she seeks to fulfil her dream; that of being mayor of Paris. As Ilyes Ramdani and Ellen Salvi report, her intention to be a candidate for the high-profile position at next year's elections is as clear as it is feared within her own political camp, where her methods continue to divide opinion.

Scams, porn and illegal casinos: the dirty money of a French online payment giant

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 © Simon Toupet / Mediapart © Simon Toupet / Mediapart

An international investigation called 'Dirty Payments', conducted by Mediapart and 20 other global media outlets, reveals the billions of euros in dubious transactions processed by the French online payments giant Worldline, a group run by the cream of France's elite. The probe shows how for ten years, and with complete impunity, the group handled these fraudulent or unethical payments on behalf of the worst figures in e-commerce: online swindlers, illegal casinos, shady pornography groups and prostitution websites. Following the initial publication of the revelations by the European Investigative Collaborations (EIC) network, prosecutors in Belgium announced they were launching an investigation into alleged “money laundering” in relation to Worldline's Belgian operation. In a statement, Worldline said it would cooperate with the authorities in Brussels. Yann Philippin and Clément Rabu report.

How Jean-Luc Mélenchon's La France Insoumise became the new pariahs of French politics

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LFI MPs at the National Assembly. © Photo Sébastien Calvet / Mediapart LFI MPs at the National Assembly. © Photo Sébastien Calvet / Mediapart

There have been accusations of anti-Semitism, calls for its dissolution, and now a parliamentary investigation has begun into its supposed “links” with Islamist organisations: criticism of Jean-Luc Mélenchon's radical-left La France Insoumise has reached unprecedented levels in recent times. In fact, the party now operates on the fringes of political debate, rather like the French Communist Party did in the last century. As such, the leftwing group represents a convenient and strategically-useful bogeyman for political rivals to attack, as some opponents have admitted. Pauline Graulle and Ilyes Ramdani report.

French prime minister François Bayrou embroiled in second school abuse scandal

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 © Élisa Beyssac-Vinay © Élisa Beyssac-Vinay

On Wednesday a parliamentary inquiry led by MPs published its reported on the scandal at the prestigious Notre-Dame-de-Bétharram private Catholic school in south-west France and the wider issue of the abuse of pupils in French schools. Prime minister François Bayrou, a former education minister and local politician whose own children attended that school, was criticised by the inquiry for “failing to act” in relation to the scandal. However, in their report, the MPs also refer to the “Pélussin affair”, which broke in 1995 at a Catholic boarding school in the south-east of France. According to documents uncovered by Mediapart, in that case, too, François Bayrou ignored whistleblowers, who have now attacked his “inaction”. Mathilde Mathieu and David Perrotin report.

Why we need these citizen protests against the warmongers

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 © Photo Saul Loeb / AFP © Photo Saul Loeb / AFP

With the fate of the world depending on the erratic and criminal strategies of autocrats who flout international law, the citizen protests seen across the globe, and in particular those against the genocidal operations in Gaza, bear witness to a shared conscience and a collective ability to stand together, writes Mediapart's publishing editor Carine Fouteau in this op-ed article. She argues that only these protests and this unity can halt the unfolding catastrophe, a looming disaster exemplified by the American bombing of Iranian sites this weekend.

Iran war: how Macron got caught in an Israeli trap

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 © Crédit : Photo Teresa Suarez / Pool / AFP © Crédit : Photo Teresa Suarez / Pool / AFP

The war declared on Iran by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has completely changed the stance of French diplomacy. A planned conference in New York that would have highlighted France's position on events in Gaza and the wider Palestinian situation was postponed, and French recognition of the state of Palestine currently seems to be on hold once more. Once again, Paris is back to showing public support for Israel. Mediapart's Ilyes Ramdani analyses the impact of the Israeli air strikes on the French president's Middle East diplomacy.

Pan Am flight 103: the revelations of former Libyan agent on the Lockerbie bombing

By and Vincent Nouzille
Left to right:: Abdullah al-Senussi, Abu Agila Mohammed Mas'ud Kheir al-Marimi, 74, aka “Masud”, and former Libyan agent Musbah Eter. © Photomontage Armel Baudet / Mediapart avec AFP et SIPA Left to right:: Abdullah al-Senussi, Abu Agila Mohammed Mas'ud Kheir al-Marimi, 74, aka “Masud”, and former Libyan agent Musbah Eter. © Photomontage Armel Baudet / Mediapart avec AFP et SIPA

In a series of confessions before US and German prosecutors, the transcripts of which have been obtained by Mediapart, former Libyan secret services agent Musbah Eter detailed how intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi, Muammar Gaddafi’s brother-in-law, and his bomb-maker “Masud”, planned and carried out a series of bombings in the 1980s, including that which downed a Pan Am Boeing 747 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988. Eter’s statements, given in a series of interrogations between 2013 and 2015, have never before been made public and remained unexploited by prosecution services. That may change ahead of a new trial over the Lockerbie bombing due in the US next April. Karl Laske and Vincent Nouzille report.

 

The chronicles of a genocide in Gaza (part two)

By Ibrahim Badra
Ibrahim Badra. © Illustration Simon Toupet / Mediapart Ibrahim Badra. © Illustration Simon Toupet / Mediapart

Mediapart is publishing a series of reports regularly sent to it from inside the Gaza Strip by two young Palestinians. Nour Elassy, a 22-year-old journalist, who is also a poet and writer, and Ibrahim Badra, a 23-year-old journalist and human rights activist, chronicle the grim reality of life and death in Gaza as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to wage a genocidal war against the population of about 2.1 million. “Famine is not a natural disaster,” writes Ibrahim Badra in his first contributions published here. “Famine is a despicable, deliberate policy used by the occupation to collectively oppress the people of Gaza.”

A year after Macron's surprise dissolution of the National Assembly, MPs succumb to boredom

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 © Photo Sébastien Calvet / Mediapart © Photo Sébastien Calvet / Mediapart

In June 2024 President Emmanuel Macron caught many by surprise when he dissolved the National Assembly and called snap parliamentary elections. His aim was to strengthen his hand in the Assembly where his party and its allies lacked an absolute majority. However, the ploy backfired and the outcome of the new elections left the Assembly more politically divided than before, with even less chance of being able to produce a stable government with a full legislative programme. So, deprived of influence over major legislation, MPs now paradoxically find themselves swamped with a flood of largely small-scale bills on diverse issues. Though amid the apparent chaos some new parliamentary habits are beginning to take root. Pauline Graulle reports.

The chronicles of a genocide in Gaza (part one)

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 © Illustration Simon Toupet / Mediapart © Illustration Simon Toupet / Mediapart


Mediapart is publishing a series of reports regularly sent to it from inside the Gaza Strip by two young Palestinians. Nour Elassy, a 22-year-old journalist, who is also a poet and writer, and Ibrahim Badra, a 23-year-old journalist and human rights activist, chronicle the grim reality of life and death in Gaza as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to wage a genocidal war against the population of about 2.1 million. “Israel’s goal is no longer hidden, it wants Gaza emptied of Palestinians,” writes Nour Elassy in her first contributions presented here, “and we are beginning to let go of our belief that we can live here, grow here, raise our children here.”

Suicides in France's overcrowded prisons: the families battling for the truth

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 © Photo Christophe Archambault / AFP © Photo Christophe Archambault / AFP

The number of suicides among prisoners in France is steadily increasing, while overcrowding of prisons is soaring. Often, the families and close entourage of the deceased face a lengthy legal battle to establish the circumstances of their deaths and the eventual responsibility of the prison authorities who, some complain, treat them with insensitivity and even disdain. Feriel Alouti reports on their distressing experiences.

Woman files complaint in France over 'war crime' deaths of grandchildren in Gaza

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An Israeli air strike on Gaza, October 23rd 2023. © Photo Ali Jadallah / Anadolu via AFP An Israeli air strike on Gaza, October 23rd 2023. © Photo Ali Jadallah / Anadolu via AFP

In what is the first legal move of its kind in France, a woman has filed a formal complaint for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide over the deaths in Gaza of two of her grandchildren, and the wounding of another, all French nationals, during Israeli airstrikes in October 2023. Meanwhile, similar moves are being launched in other countries against named Israeli military personnel accused of committing war crimes. Gwenaelle Lenoir reports.

Lost in the Channel: the migrants who disappear en route to England

By Maïa Courtois, Maël Galisson and Simon Mauvieux
 © Photo Valentina Camu pour Mediapart © Photo Valentina Camu pour Mediapart

The macabre and seemingly weekly occurrence of bodies washed ashore on France’s northern Channel coast bears witness to the recurrent tragedies that befall migrants attempting the dangerous clandestine passage to southern England in overcrowded, unseaworthy dinghies. When the small boats sink, the exact numbers of passengers who originally embarked on them is mostly unknown, as are the numbers who disappear in the incidents. Maïa Courtois, Maël Galisson and Simon Mauvieux report on the difficult and often mismanaged process of identifying the corpses of victims returned by the sea, and the angst of the families who remain uncertain of their fate.