French lawmaker files complaint over alleged investigation leak
French-Palestinian European Parliament member Rima Hassan has filed a complaint against French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez, accusing him of breaching the secrecy of an investigation involving her.
Hassan and her lawyer, Vincent Brengarth, submitted the complaint Friday to France’s Court of Justice of the Republic, the body with jurisdiction over alleged offenses committed by government ministers.
Brengarth said the complaint seeks to determine how Nunez obtained information about the investigation and whether he passed details to journalists.
The lawyer said two French media outlets had reported that Nunez and Sacha Straub-Kahn, a spokesperson for the Justice Ministry, leaked information related to the case. He said the complaint should be investigated and questioned the legal basis on which the interior minister had access to confidential material.
The complaint follows a report by French investigative outlet Mediapart alleging that Paris judicial police monitored Hassan’s phone activity and movements from Jan. 1, including a period before a formal investigation had been opened.
According to the report, investigators used geolocation data and obtained records from transport operators, including France’s national railway company SNCF and international rail service Thalys, as well as information from Hassan’s phone provider, to reconstruct her travel and contacts.
Hassan was detained in April over allegations of terrorist propaganda after she shared on social media statements by Kozo Okamoto, a former member of the Japanese Red Army who expressed support for Palestine.
The latest complaint now puts the handling and disclosure of information surrounding the investigation under scrutiny.
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