Regarding two checks for several thousand euros that she is accused of having cashed, Farah Ziani, elected municipal official without a label, said “that it concerned a sale of furniture and a quad, in no case of traffic narcotics”.
The elected Auxerre opposition Farah Ziani (unlabeled), already convicted of fraud, denied any participation in drug trafficking on Tuesday during the first day of her trial, where she appears in particular for laundering drug trafficking.
“I do not recognize any of the offenses with which I am charged,” said the elected official at the helm.
As for his companion, Jérémy C., accused of being a “wholesaler” of drug trafficking, in the words of his lawyer Helena Viana, this concerned “vehicles, but not narcotics”, a-t- she defended.
Six other defendants appear before the criminal court of Auxerre, for acquisition, offer or unauthorized transfer of narcotics or complicity. “The couple had a way of life that far exceeded their income,” explained the public prosecutor of Auxerre, Hugues de Phily.
Already condemned in 2022
At the origin of the investigation, a “denunciation” which led to a search in Beines (Yonne), where 1600 grams of heroin were found. In this drug trafficking case, running from March 1 to December 14, 2020, Farah Ziani is in particular accused of money laundering.
On March 10, 2022, this municipal councilor was sentenced in a fraud case by the Auxerre Criminal Court to four months in prison suspended and a five-year ineligibility sentence.
The elected official, who was accused of having stolen 10,000 euros from a client, in October 2020, when she worked in a real estate agency, appealed by denouncing “an unfounded accusation”. This appeal is suspensive of the conviction made in March 2022.
42-year-old Farah Ziani was excluded from her opposition group “The assurance of a serene transition”, a formation bringing together environmentalists, socialists and walkers against the mayor LR of Auxerre, Crescent Marault.
This new trial is scheduled to last two or even three days. The penalty for drug trafficking is up to ten years in prison, five for money laundering.
