Prosecuted for unlawful interest-taking, Valérie Bozzi was sentenced on Wednesday 7 December to four months of suspended confinement, a 5,000 euro fine and three years of ineligibility by the Bastia Court of Appeal.
Two days after the sentence, the mayor of Grosseto-Pruna decided to appeal to the Supreme Court
as confirmed by his lawyer Me Dominique Mattei. “Since Ajaccio had not given a provisional execution, it is a suspensive appeal”remember.
“There used to be a definition of illegal interest taking, which was changed by a law in December 2021, justifies. It was enough for the elected to be interested, while the new law says that the interest must be specified and whether it has compromised his impartiality, his objectivity, his independence. Since there is no jurisprudence of the Court of Cassation, we will propose that he give his interpretation so that it is applicable.
The one elected, who is also a lawyer, is accused of having presided over the municipal council of Grosseto-Prugna (Corse-du-Sud) on 28 October, the locality where the seaside resort of Porticcio is located, in the Gulf of Ajaccio 2016, and of having participated in a vote concerning the transfer of the commercial lease of a private condominium land hosting a bathing establishment. However, it would seem that this buyer was SAS Alta Rocca, chaired by his partner.
He is also accused of having signed bathing concessions on 27 November 2018 in favor of SAS Alta Rocca. As for Signor Ceccaldi, he allegedly “knowingly benefited from the decisions” of his concubine. Bozzi “deviated from her duty of fairness as mayor” and “favored her partner in two transactions”, advocate general Catherine Levy said in the hearing.
“I acted in total transparency and in the interest of the municipality”, defended Valérie Bozzi on stand. Mayor of Grosseto-Prugna, he is also territorial councilor in the Corsican assembly, where he is vice president of the right-wing opposition group Un Soffiu novu, as well as president of the Pieve de l’intercomunalità Ornano e Taravo.
In the hearing, Me Dominique Mattei listed the cases of elected officials – Alain Juppé (former prime minister), Jacques Chirac, Maryse Joissains (former mayor of Aix-en-Provence) – sentenced to a much lower sentence of ineligibility but for facts that he believes much more serious. He had asked for his client’s release.
