Several police officers involved in the Benalla case and dragged into the fall

The umbrella of the Elysee will hardly resist the media storm that blows on Alexandre Benalla. The collaborator of the President of the Republic arrived Friday morning at the "Bastion", headquarters of the police in Paris, in the 17th arrondissement, before being placed in custody. The hearing conducted by the police officers of the Brigade of repression against the person (BRDP) could last, as the suspicions that hang over him are numerous. Alexandre Benalla is targeted for leaders of "violence in meetings by person in charge of a public service mission", but will also have to answer "usurpation of function" and "illegal port of badges reserved for the public authority "

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For this, the violent collaborator – subject to proceedings to dismiss him from the Elysee – incurs up to three years of imprisonment and 45,000 euros fine. But that's not all: this missionary of a very particular kind may also lead other officials in his descent into hell. Heard for "complicity in misappropriation of images from a video surveillance system", Alexandre Benalla is suspected of having been made contact – out of any legal rule and by challenging three officials of the Directorate of Public Order and of the circulation (DOPC) – images of the "PVPP" system, the videoprotection mesh of the Paris Police Prefecture

"Feeling the wind turn by receiving calls from journalists, three days ago, about of the video implicating him ", as a police source tells Figaro Alexandre Benalla, at bay, would have tried to light a counter-fire by looking for other sequences of the scene of the Contrescarpe, likely, in his eyes, to clear customs. The "chargé de mission" then asked for a controller general badigned to the staff of the DOPC, deemed close to him. This senior official, whose name had publicly circulated last winter for the highly-prized PSG security director, would have consented to make this valuable "service".

"Known as the white wolf of the services of Parisian order, Benalla was also feared on the ground because of proximity to the head of state he did not hide … "

A policeman

Without warning a priori its director, the Comptroller General would then have asked a young commissioner, also badigned to the staff of law and order, to select the sequence. It turns out that the latter, considered a hitherto irreproachable and very promising official, was also place of the Contrescarpe that famous May 1st, with a detachment of CRS, in order to free the places occupied by a reliquat of anarcho-autonomous militants . On the spot, he would even have crossed Alexandre Benalla, before writing a sheet of "making available" of the person under control. "This is proof that this commissioner has not concealed anything," says one of his peers in the police, convinced that "he was there at the wrong time, at the wrong time." "Known as the white wolf of the services of Parisian order, continues in off this official, Benalla was also feared on the ground because of a proximity with the head of the State which he did not hide …"

May 1 with the Minister of the Interior and the Prefect of Police

On the evening of May 1, Alexandre Benalla was invited to the DOPC information and command room (SIC), at the time where the Minister of the Interior and the Prefect of Police came to support the forces after a hard day. But it is only by seeing the video the next day that the big boss of the Parisian police discovered that Alexandre Benalla had been in the device.

After having executed, making copy of the sequence of videoprotection asked, the young commissioner pbaded it on to an officer. Which, last spring, rose to the rank of commander. To the surprise of unions, one of whom speaks of "incredible circumstances". A promotion to which was added another, in the wake, since he was bombarded "liaison officer" at the Elysee. While the Paris prosecutor's office also cosaisi the Inspectorate General of the National Police (IGPN, "policy police"), the three officials were suspended as a precautionary up to four months, in the absence of prosecution . Faced with the controversy that swells, Gerard Collomb has "heavily condemned" actions that, if they were to be confirmed, […] undermine the exemplary image […] of the national police.

"3rd man"

For 48 hours, the investigations are conducted at a charge. After the discreet hearing, and as a witness on Thursday, Emmanuel Macron's chief of staff, Patrick Strzoda, the police also placed Vincent Crase in custody. This reserve squadron leader of the gendarmerie, employee of LaREM and close to Alexandre Benalla, is also accused of having committed violence on the place of the Contrescarpe. The investigators could also be interested in the "third man" present at his side on the images. He is a DOPC major whose mission was to accompany him throughout the day during his "observation mission". Of these auditions, which could splash other protagonists and make them fall like in a game of dominoes, it already shows the outlines of a curious circle of personal relationships, risking to degrade the image of "exemplary Republic" promoted in highest peak of the state.