Toulouse: “The breach of lawyers’ secrecy constitutes an attack on democracy”
Pierre Dunac, president of the Toulouse Bar Association and his vice-president, Frédéric Langlois, did not object to the bill which weakens the secrecy of exchanges between the lawyer and his client. They call for a “citizen” demonstration on Tuesday.
Initially, the bill of “confidence in justice” carried by the government supposedly “reinforce” the secrecy between the lawyer and his client. The deputy LRem Naïma Matchou, also a lawyer, even “defended before the National Assembly an amendment to strengthen secrecy and that the total protection of professional secrecy of lawyers be included in the code of criminal procedure, in matters of defense and in the field of advice ”, indicates the President of the Bar Pierre Dunac. This amendment was voted on.
“Before the Senate, the lobbying of the national financial prosecutor and Bercy was very active. The senators not only prohibited secrecy in the context of the fight against tax offenses and money laundering (and terrorism) but they also made a second exception which concerns the case, as unverifiable as it is improbable, where the lawyer would have been instrumentalized by maneuvers or actions and would thus have allowed, unintentionally, the commission, prosecution or concealment of an offense! The door open to all excess. Tomorrow we will come to our offices to search under any pretext and on the sole affirmation of the investigators of an alleged instrumentalisation ignored by all but themselves. Only the police states on this model ”, denounce Mes Dunac and Langlois. The president and his vice-president are all the more angry that before the Senate these “exceptions” were defended by Philippe Bonnecarère, senator from Tarn and … former lawyer.
A demonstration Tuesday
Since then, in the joint joint committee which reports the two chambers, the Senate has won its case and the lawyers, particularly worried, have called on the government for an amendment to rectify this bill. “As medical confidentiality does not protect the doctor but the patient, our professional secrecy does not protect lawyers but all those who consult us. To call it into question is to undermine the fundamental freedoms of citizens. In a democracy, the end does not justify the means! », Denounces Pierre Dunac.
The bill must be voted on Tuesday before the National Assembly and Thursday before the Senate. The exchanges between the lawyers and their former colleague, now Keeper of the Seals, Eric Dupond-Moretti, turns into a tough confrontation. “The proposed compromise, which would involve the removal of the second exception, is neither sufficient nor acceptable, insists the President of Toulouse. Citizens committed to democracy must be aware. “
To mark its opposition, the Toulouse Bar is organizing a demonstration Tuesday at 1 p.m. Place du Salin, in Toulouse. “It is not a corporatist demonstration of lawyers, warns the President of the Bar Pierre Dunac, but a citizens’ rally to defend our democracy and the serious attack on our freedoms. “