French Lawmaker Faces Appeal Trial for Misuse of Association Funds

The Rennes Criminal Court had sentenced, on August 6, the LREM MP to six months’ suspended imprisonment, a 10,000 euro fine and three years of ineligibility for breach of trust, recalls Ouest-France.

Mustapha Laabid, 51, is being prosecuted for the "personal or improper use of the funds of the association Collectif Intermède" which he had created in Blosne, Rennes, after the 2005 riots in the French suburbs. An association he had chaired until his election to the National Assembly in 2017.

The amount of the alleged misappropriation is 21,545 euros, it is specified. The association’s funds would have been used for personal expenses (meals in restaurants, hotel bills, supermarket purchases) in Rennes, Paris and Morocco, from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2017. The justice system will add that "the misappropriation of public funds continued after he was elected to the Republic".

The former socialist had appealed the judgment made public by the Rennes Criminal Court. He will thus be tried on appeal on September 24. His trial before the Rennes Court of Appeal, initially scheduled for November 20, 2019 and then April 1, 2020, had been postponed due to the health crisis related to the coronavirus.

In November 2017, the investigation had been opened after a Tracfin report, the ministry of the Economy’s service in charge of the fight against money laundering, in October 2017.