The violation of the Penal Code for forgery in titles is proven in the case which opposes the Friborg businessman Damien Piller to the Migros cooperative Neuchâtel-Friborg, according to the Neuchâtel public prosecutor. Attorney General Pierre Aubert cannot say whether charges are expected soon.
“We must naturally seek to determine who ordered these bulletins, who printed them, who filled them and who sent them,” said Pierre Aubert in an interview with La Liberté published on Friday. The Attorney General cannot comment on the timing of the investigation.
Seizure of phones and computers
To carry out its investigations, the public prosecutor seized telephones and computers for control. The operation was coordinated and carried out at the same time for several people and in several cantons.
We must, of course, seek to determine who ordered these bulletins, who printed them, who filled them out and who sent them.
Pierre Aubert, Attorney General
According to Pierre Aubert, “the ballots should not have been difficult to falsify. (…) In other words, they were not at the same level of security, for example, as banknotes. To be frank, I do not think that the organizers of the election expected such means to be deployed for this falsification. “
During the November ballot aimed at removing Damien Piller from the presidency of the Administration (a sort of board of directors) of the Migros Neuchâtel-Friborg cooperative, some 28,000 ballots in his favor were falsified. They helped make his dismissal fail.
“Nothing to be ashamed of”
According to a new count, covering the 50,000 or so ballots received last November, the result would have been reversed if only valid ballots had been taken into account, the Neuchâtel Public Prosecutor said on Wednesday evening. About 17,600 ballots are said to have supported the revocation of mandates and 4,600 were opposed. With the falsified ballot papers, the revocation was ultimately rejected by 64.53% of the votes.
The businessman from Friborg says that he “has absolutely nothing” to blame himself for in this affair. “Damien Piller has in no way participated in the possible falsification of ballot papers,” his lawyer Philippe Leuba told Thursday. The promoter does not intend to communicate further at this time.
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