Overview
- Former DGSE director Bernard Emié told the Paris special criminal court that the service runs no unauthorized missions and that the accused acted on their own.
- Defense lawyers argued the agency armed and trained the men yet failed to supervise them, saying a lax camp culture at the Action service let rules slide.
- Testimony said accused agent Pierre Bourdin moved weapon parts with DGSE approval, and an armorer testified that rules exist but are often ignored inside the service.
- The defendants have claimed they thought they were on a DGSE “mission homo,” a term for a targeted killing, after mistaking a corporate coach for a spy, which the agency flatly denied.
- The case began with arrests in July 2020 near the victim’s home and widened to a lodge-linked criminal network, with 22 people now on trial in Paris through mid-July.