The Predator Files investigation has revealed how the French external intelligence agency, the DGSE, cooperated very closely with the surveillance equipment firm Nexa. This is despite the fact that the French group was suspected by French prosecutors of being complicit in torture by exporting its products to dictatorial regimes. Nexa's clients have also included several French ministries and a number of the country's intelligence agencies. Yann Philippin and Matthieu Suc report.
Mediapart is part of an international investigation called 'Predator Files' which has revealed how French group Nexa sold the spy software 'Predator' to three autocratic regimes. The same media investigation shows that, after making direct contact with President Emmanuel Macron, the company used his former bodyguard and personal security adviser Alexandre Benalla to try to sell spyware to Saudi Arabia. This was despite the murder of Saudi regime critic and journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Yet 18 months after these deeply embarrassing facts for the Élysée were unearthed, a judicial investigation has stalled. Yann Philippin and Antton Rouget report.
France's justice minister Éric Dupond-Moretti is due to stand trial this November over an alleged “unlawful conflict of interest”. He will appear before the Cour de Justice de la République (CJR), France's special court reserved for ministers being tried over acts they carried out as part of their official duties. Mediapart has spoken to judges, legal experts and politicians who are concerned about the nature of a trial in which the country's justice minister will confront prosecutors who are answerable to him in the workplace … and in a courtroom where most of those judging him are politicians. Fabrice Arfi and Michel Deléan report.
In recent weeks voluntary groups who help victims of domestic violence in France have been obliged to refuse some women a place in safe accommodation. This follows directives issued by state prefectures around the country. These orders, which have been seen by Mediapart, instruct these help groups to cut back on the amount of emergency hotel accommodation that they can offer women in need. Audrey Guiller and Nolwenn Weiler report.
France's far-right Rassemblement National party recently announced that it has repaid the controversial loan it took out with Russian financial institutions. In doing so, Marine Le Pen's party is seeking both to portray itself as a good financial manager and remove what has become a political millstone around its neck since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Yet the party's announcement came just five days after revelations by Mediapart raised fresh concerns over the close links between the the French party and the Putin regime at the time the loan was arranged. As Marine Turchi reports, questions still linger over exactly how the loan was obtained and the commissions that were paid to arrange it.
A total of 16 women have accused the actor Gérard Depardieu of sexual assault, including rape. While Depardieu has firmly denied the allegations, a French television documentary investigating the claims this month revealed hitherto unseen footage of his lewd behaviour. Amid the outrage sparked by the documentary, 56 showbiz stars this week signed an open letter denouncing the “lynching” of Depardieu. But the most notable of those who have leapt to the actor’s defence is Emmanuel Macron, who slammed what he called a “manhunt” against the actor, even wrongly suggesting the incriminating recording in the documentary had been doctored. In this op-ed article first published in French last week, Lénaïg Bredoux and Marine Turchi analyse the French president’s ill-judged intervention.
A major controversy has erupted in France about the way an education authority responded to the parents of a 15-year-old boy who took his own life after being bullied. Officials claimed the pupil's parents had shown an “unacceptable” approach towards school staff and even threatened legal action for defamation. As Mediapart's Mathilde Goanec reports, this grim episode has raised questions over how the country's local education authorities deal with parental concerns over problems such as bullying. It also raises a wider issue about the role that parents are allowed to have in schools.
In an effort to curb carbon dioxide emissions, the French government recently backed the extension of regional express transport networks or RERs in the country's major conurbations. New rail and bus routes have already been created around the major south-western city of Bordeaux and they have attracted many new passengers. But as Manuel Magrez reports, some of the city's new transport routes are now so popular and overcrowded they will soon require even more resources.
President Emmanuel Macron and his government locked in difficult negotiations over draft legislation aimed at toughening up immigration and asylum laws. Originally due to be presented in the spring, it was withdrawn after the government, without an absolute majority in parliament, failed to gain necessary support from the conservative opposition. They are vehemently opposed to an article in the bill which would allow undocumented migrants working in sectors suffering labour shortages to gain full legal status. The issue has caused a deep split among members of Macron’s centre-right party, some of who, led by MP Sacha Houlié, fear that hardline interior minister Gérald Darmanin, presenter of the bill, will bow to pressure from the conservatives to remove the regularisation measures. Mediapart’s parliamentary correspondent Pauline Graulle reports.
Though it has not said so officially, the Indian government of prime minister Narendra Modi is refusing to comply with a request for international cooperation made by French judges. The two investigating magistrates want access to key documents as part of their probe into alleged corruption over the sale of 36 Dassault-built Rafale fighter jets to India in 2016 for 7.8 billion euros. Yann Philippin investigates.
