Particle.news
Download on the App Store

Bernard Bajolet Goes on Trial in Bobigny, Denies Ordering Coercion

The case centers on a 2016 airport encounter over a disputed €15 million said to trace to a clandestine DGSE patrimony.

Overview

  • During Thursday’s hearing, the 76-year-old former intelligence chief told the court he never ordered “any form of constraint” and acknowledged that “things did not go as they should.”
  • He is being tried in Bobigny over two days on counts of complicity in attempted extortion and arbitrary deprivation of liberty tied to the Roissy operation.
  • Judicial accounts say border police escorted Alain Duménil to a room where two DGSE operatives demanded repayment and displayed photos of him and family members to exert pressure.
  • The defense maintains Bajolet approved only the idea of a conversation and did not oversee its execution, while Duménil’s lawyer portrays the episode as a misuse of sovereign means to secure payment.
  • A declassified DG‑P report describes a six‑minute meeting punctuated by a “catalogue of photos,” the agents’ identities remain protected under secret défense, and the DG‑P unit was later dissolved in 2024.