President Emmanuel Macron’s former bodyguard was sentenced to three years in prison on Friday for assaulting two young demonstrators during anti-capitalist protests in 2018, an incident that deeply embarrassed the president.
Alexandre Benalla, who suspended his duties for two of the three years and ordered him to wear an electronic bracelet for one year, he would not see the inside of the prison, was also convicted of forging documents and The charge of illegally carrying a gun.
Macron used the integrity of the office as the cornerstone of his 2017 campaign. After a video appeared, Benalla fired Benalla. The video showed him beating a young man and grabbing a young man during the May Day protests in Paris. Of a young woman.
The 30-year-old former bodyguard wore a police helmet, although he was only allowed to participate in the protest as an observer.
“Benaraget” quickly became the first major test of Macron’s presidency. Macron was accused of covering up the incident until the French daily Le Monde did not disclose the existence of the video two months after the incident.
Read | Macron’s former bodyguard who was humiliated in the assault is on trial
Benalla denied these allegations during the trial, saying he “conditioned reflex” to help the police arrest unruly protesters.
Benalla began serving as Macron’s bodyguard in 2016 and was promoted to a senior security role after Macron’s victory in May 2017, becoming a trusted confidant and right-hand man beside Macron in countless photos.
After the scandal broke out, Benara also admitted to carrying a pistol when he was out with Macron, although he was only authorized to own it in Macron’s party headquarters, where he was nicknamed “Rambo”.
Investigators discovered that he continued to use his diplomatic passport to travel to Africa and Israel in an attempt to establish a consulting business there.
He was also found guilty of using forged documents to obtain one of the passports.
While reading the verdict, the presiding judge Isabelle Prevost-Desprez stated that Benara seemed to believe that he could act “with impunity” during and after working for the president. And “feeling omnipotent.”
“You have been given a certain amount of power, which is true in terms of your work and assumed because of your close relationship with the president,” she said.
You betrayed the trust you gained through this appointment.
A former senior campaign official described Benara as “a person who can solve all practical problems very effectively. He has everything in mind, and he is our Swiss Army knife.”
He also received benefits normally reserved for senior government officials, including an apartment near the Elysee Palace, and access to the National Assembly and its private gym and library.
After the scandal, the Macron government survived two no-confidence votes in parliament, but a Senate investigation team questioning Macron’s key aides found that the government’s handling of the matter had “major flaws.”
Friday’s sentence was more severe than the punishment demanded by the prosecutor, who asked Benalla to be suspended for 18 months during the trial in September.
