An administrative investigation revealed that the retired general imposed “acts considered humiliating”. The defendant disputes the facts with which he is charged.
A preliminary investigation for moral harassment targeting a high-ranking member of the gendarmerie was opened on December 27 after a report from the director general of the national gendarmerie (DGGN), AFP learned on Friday from the Paris prosecutor’s office, confirming information from the Parisian.
“Several alerts”
The report made by the DGGN, Christian Rodriguez, had been sent to the prosecution on October 10, 2022, said the prosecution.
“I had received several alerts and requested an administrative investigation which concluded that there was undoubtedly an offense of harassment,” the DGGN told AFP.
“I therefore made an article 40 (article of the code of criminal procedure, which obliges any authority to report to the justice of the criminal facts of which it would be aware, editor’s note)”, added Christian Rodriguez.
“Acts considered humiliating”
Contacted by AFP, the general in question, former commander of the Judicial Pole of the National Gendarmerie (PJGN) and now retired, said he had not been made aware of this article 40 and said he disputed the accusations of harassment.
The moral harassment investigation was entrusted to the General Inspectorate of the National Gendarmerie (IGGN).
During the administrative investigation carried out within the PJGN, “between five and ten people would have confirmed the story of a harsh command that offends people, with acts considered humiliating”, recounts The Parisian.
The general would have sought to “manage everything down to simple officers and by imposing his diktat by force and humiliation”, reports the daily, quoting a senior officer of the Institute for Criminal Research of the National Gendarmerie.
Still recently on mission in Ukraine
A scientific expert, this general commanded the Institute for Criminal Research of the National Gendarmerie (IRCGN) before taking the helm of the PJGN. He developed the IRCGN, an essential technical structure in genetic expertise, by providing it with a mobile laboratory for in situ DNA analysis.
This tool was notably used in the crash of a Germanwings airliner in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence in 2015 or in the attack on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice in 2016.
More recently, it was used by IRCGN gendarmes sent to Ukraine in the spring to identify victims and determine the causes of their death.
