French President Emmanuel Macron's chief of staff Alexis Kohler can be prosecuted over an alleged conflict of interest in a previous job, the Paris appeals court ruled on Tuesday.
According to reports from the French news agency AFP, Kohler can be prosecuted on suspicion of illegally favouring a company to which he had family ties while working as a senior civil servant between 2009 and 2016.
The case revolves around Kohler's links to ship-owning firm MSC, an Italian-Swiss company run by cousins of his mother, the Aponte family.
Kohler is suspected of abusing his job with a government agency between 2009 and 2012 in which he managed the French state's stakes in companies.
The position meant he sat on boards at shipyard STX France (now named Chantiers de l'Atlantique) and the GPMH seaport in Le Havre.
Position
In the following years, prosecutors suspect he weighed in on decisions affecting MSC while working in the finance and economy ministry, including under the then minister Macron.
Kohler's lawyers say he recused himself from decisions with any bearing on MSC and was open with his superiors about the family connection well beyond his obligations under ethics rules.
They also state that many of the alleged acts took place before 2014 and have passed the statute of limitations.
However, judges agreed with investigating magistrates who say that Kohler may have undertaken positive actions to conceal his ties to MSC more recently.
Bruno Bezard and Jean-Dominique Comolli, both former heads of the APE state investments agency, are accused of helping Kohler with a cover-up.
(With newswires)
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