Bernard Bonnet
Encyclopedia
Bernard Bonnet French
civil servant
, is best known for being the first prefect since World War II to be convicted of an offense committed in the course of his duties, his role in the "Affair of the beach huts".
, Germany
, where his father, an army officer, was serving. He entered the French civil service as a tax inspector, a post he occupied for five years before being admitted to the prestigious École Nationale d'Administration
(ENA) in the "Guernica" class of 1976. On graduation, he obtained a post at the Interior Ministry.
in 1993 by Charles Pasqua
. He was strongly opposed to expressions of catalanism in the département
, including the public use of the Catalan language
, and his time in Perpignan
has been described as "five years of absolute rule by a super-prefect" in the pseudonymous book Bernard Bonnet, un préfet chez les Catalans After his departure for Corsica, a fake death notice appeared in Catalan in L'Indépendant
, the main local newspaper in Perpignan.
on 1998-02-09, just three days after the assassination of his predecessor Claude Erignac
. His role, as announced by Chevènement, was to "restore the state of law", and he quickly showed a firm hand against nationalist groups. He was particularly uncompromising in his use of Article 40 of the Code of Penal Procedure, which obliges civil servants to denounce any illegal activity of which they are aware.
His style brought protests from Corsican politicians, but were generally well received on mainland France. In a session of the Corsican Assembly
on 1998-10-31, he was asked ironically by members of the Corsica Nazione
group "when he was leaving": he replied that it would be "when your friends stop racketeering, when your friends stop the assassinations at village festivals, when your friends stop planting explosives."
attack at Cala d'Orzo, south of Ajaccio
. Bonnet initially suggested that the attack was a result of a disagreement between armed separatist groups (a common occurrence in Corsica at the time), but the police investigation quickly indicated that the fire had been started by a group of gendarme
s from the elite Groupe de peloton de sécurité (GPS). A walkie-talkie
, a compass, a blood-stained balaclava and several jerrycan
s which had contained petrol were discovered buried in the sand of the beach on 23 April, while a badly-burned patient had been anonymously admitted to the Rangueil University Hospital in Toulouse
, transferred from the neighbouring military hospital.
Bonnet was arrested on 3 May and flown to Paris for questioning: he was held in prison on remand (détention préventive)
for two months. After a trial in Ajaccio, he was found guilty of conspiracy to arson (complicité de destruction de biens appartenant à autrui par l'effet d'un incendie) on 2002-01-10 and sentenced to three years of imprisonment, two of which were suspended
, and three years deprivation of his civil rights
(privation des droits civiques).
Bonnet appealed against his conviction, first to the Court of Appeal in Bastia
, which rejected the appeal on 2003-01-15, and then to the Court of Cassation
, France's highest court, which rejected his petition on 2004-10-13. His request for a Presidential pardon was rejected by Jacques Chirac
in March 2005. Nevertheless, Bonnet never returned to prison as he was granted probation
(liberté conditionnelle) by a Paris judge on 2006-06-09, a decision confirmed on appeal on 2006-10-12. Neither was he ever sacked from the civil service: he was suspended after his arrest in May 1999, and retired on a normal pension in October 2006.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
civil servant
French Civil Service
The French Civil Service is the set of civil servants working for the French government.Not all employees of the state and public institutions or corporations are civil servants; however, the media often incorrectly equate "government employee" or "employee of a public corporation" with...
, is best known for being the first prefect since World War II to be convicted of an offense committed in the course of his duties, his role in the "Affair of the beach huts".
Early career
Bernard Bonnet was born in GrünstadtGrünstadt
Grünstadt is a town in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany with roughly 13,200 inhabitants. It does not belong to any Verbandsgemeinde – a kind of collective municipality – but is nonetheless the administrative seat of the Verbandsgemeinde of Grünstadt-Land.- Location :The...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, where his father, an army officer, was serving. He entered the French civil service as a tax inspector, a post he occupied for five years before being admitted to the prestigious École Nationale d'Administration
École nationale d'administration
The École Nationale d'Administration , one of the most prestigious of French graduate schools , was created in 1945 by Charles de Gaulle to democratise access to the senior civil service. It is now entrusted with the selection and initial training of senior French officials...
(ENA) in the "Guernica" class of 1976. On graduation, he obtained a post at the Interior Ministry.
- chief-of-staff to the prefect of VendéeVendéeThe Vendée is a department in the Pays-de-la-Loire region in west central France, on the Atlantic Ocean. The name Vendée is taken from the Vendée river which runs through the south-eastern part of the department.-History:...
(1976–78) - chief-of-staff to the prefect of the Pas-de-Calais (1978–79)
- secretary general of the prefecture of the AudeAudeAude is a department in south-central France named after the river Aude. The local council also calls the department "Cathar Country".Aude is also a frequent feminine French given name in Francophone countries, deriving initially from Aude or Oda, a wife of Bertrand, Duke of Aquitaine, and mother...
(1979–91) - deputy prefect, responsible for security, at the regional prefecture of CorsicaCorsicaCorsica is an island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is located west of Italy, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the island of Sardinia....
(1991–92)
Prefect of the Pyrénées-Orientales
Bernard Bonnet was named as prefect of the Pyrénées-OrientalesPyrénées-Orientales
Pyrénées-Orientales is a department of southern France adjacent to the northern Spanish frontier and the Mediterranean Sea. It also surrounds the tiny Spanish enclave of Llívia, and thus has two distinct borders with Spain.- History :...
in 1993 by Charles Pasqua
Charles Pasqua
Charles Pasqua is a French businessman and Gaullist politician. He was Interior Minister from 1986 to 1988, under Jacques Chirac's cohabitation government, and also from 1993 to 1995, under the government of Edouard Balladur...
. He was strongly opposed to expressions of catalanism in the département
Départements of France
The departments of France are French administrative divisions. The 101 departments form one of the three levels of local government, together with the 22 metropolitan and 5 overseas regions above them and more than 36 000 communes beneath them...
, including the public use of the Catalan language
Catalan language
Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
, and his time in Perpignan
Perpignan
-Sport:Perpignan is a rugby stronghold: their rugby union side, USA Perpignan, is a regular competitor in the Heineken Cup and seven times champion of the Top 14 , while their rugby league side plays in the engage Super League under the name Catalans Dragons.-Culture:Since 2004, every year in the...
has been described as "five years of absolute rule by a super-prefect" in the pseudonymous book Bernard Bonnet, un préfet chez les Catalans After his departure for Corsica, a fake death notice appeared in Catalan in L'Indépendant
L'Indépendant
L'Indépendant is a newspaper published in Luxembourg from 1945....
, the main local newspaper in Perpignan.
Prefect of Corsica
Bernard Bonnet was named as prefect of Corsica by Jean-Pierre ChevènementJean-Pierre Chevènement
Jean-Pierre Chevènement is a French politician. He was Minister of Defense from 1988 to 1991 and Minister of the Interior from 1997 to 2000. He was a presidential candidate in 2002 and since 2008 has been a member of the Senate....
on 1998-02-09, just three days after the assassination of his predecessor Claude Erignac
Claude Erignac
Claude Érignac was a former French prefect on the island of Corsica.Érignac was born in Mende, Lozère. In 1996 he went to Ajaccio in Corsica to take office as the Prefect of Corse-du-Sud. He was assassinated at 9:15 p.m. on 6 February 1998. Corsican nationalist militant Yvan Colonna was suspected...
. His role, as announced by Chevènement, was to "restore the state of law", and he quickly showed a firm hand against nationalist groups. He was particularly uncompromising in his use of Article 40 of the Code of Penal Procedure, which obliges civil servants to denounce any illegal activity of which they are aware.
His style brought protests from Corsican politicians, but were generally well received on mainland France. In a session of the Corsican Assembly
Corsican Assembly
The Corsican Assembly is the unicameral legislative body of the territorial collectivity of Corsica. It has its seat at the Grand Hôtel d'Ajaccio et Continental, in the Corsican capital of Ajaccio.-History:...
on 1998-10-31, he was asked ironically by members of the Corsica Nazione
Corsica nazione
Corsica Nazione is a Corsican nationalist party which aims to gain control over Corsica from France, regain national rights, and promote the Corsican national identity...
group "when he was leaving": he replied that it would be "when your friends stop racketeering, when your friends stop the assassinations at village festivals, when your friends stop planting explosives."
Affair of the beach huts
Bernard Bonnet's career came to an abrupt end in 1999 with the "affair of the beach huts" . On the night of 19–20 April 1999, two illegally constructed beach restaurants were destroyed in an arsonArson
Arson is the crime of intentionally or maliciously setting fire to structures or wildland areas. It may be distinguished from other causes such as spontaneous combustion and natural wildfires...
attack at Cala d'Orzo, south of Ajaccio
Ajaccio
Ajaccio , is a commune on the island of Corsica in France. It is the capital and largest city of the region of Corsica and the prefecture of the department of Corse-du-Sud....
. Bonnet initially suggested that the attack was a result of a disagreement between armed separatist groups (a common occurrence in Corsica at the time), but the police investigation quickly indicated that the fire had been started by a group of gendarme
Gendarmerie
A gendarmerie or gendarmery is a military force charged with police duties among civilian populations. Members of such a force are typically called "gendarmes". The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary describes a gendarme as "a soldier who is employed on police duties" and a "gendarmery, -erie" as...
s from the elite Groupe de peloton de sécurité (GPS). A walkie-talkie
Walkie-talkie
A walkie-talkie is a hand-held, portable, two-way radio transceiver. Its development during the Second World War has been variously credited to Donald L. Hings, radio engineer Alfred J. Gross, and engineering teams at Motorola...
, a compass, a blood-stained balaclava and several jerrycan
Jerrycan
A jerrycan is a robust fuel container originally made from pressed steel. It was designed in Germany in the 1930s for military use to hold 20 litres of fuel. The development of the Jerrycan was a huge improvement on earlier designs, which required tools and funnels to use.-Uses:Today similar...
s which had contained petrol were discovered buried in the sand of the beach on 23 April, while a badly-burned patient had been anonymously admitted to the Rangueil University Hospital in Toulouse
Toulouse
Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...
, transferred from the neighbouring military hospital.
Bonnet was arrested on 3 May and flown to Paris for questioning: he was held in prison on remand (détention préventive)
Detention of suspects
The detention of suspects is the process of keeping a person who has been arrested in a police-cell, remand prison or other detention centre before trial or sentencing. One criticism of pretrial detention is that eventual acquittal can be a somewhat hollow victory, in that there is no way to...
for two months. After a trial in Ajaccio, he was found guilty of conspiracy to arson (complicité de destruction de biens appartenant à autrui par l'effet d'un incendie) on 2002-01-10 and sentenced to three years of imprisonment, two of which were suspended
Suspended sentence
A suspended sentence is a legal term for a judge's delaying of a defendant's serving of a sentence after they have been found guilty, in order to allow the defendant to perform a period of probation...
, and three years deprivation of his civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
(privation des droits civiques).
Bonnet appealed against his conviction, first to the Court of Appeal in Bastia
Bastia
Bastia is a commune in the Haute-Corse department of France located in the northeast of the island of Corsica at the base of Cap Corse. It is also the second-largest city in Corsica after Ajaccio and the capital of the department....
, which rejected the appeal on 2003-01-15, and then to the Court of Cassation
Court of Cassation (France)
The French Supreme Court of Judicature is France's court of last resort having jurisdiction over all matters triable in the judicial stream but only scope of review to determine a miscarriage of justice or certify a question of law based solely on points of law...
, France's highest court, which rejected his petition on 2004-10-13. His request for a Presidential pardon was rejected by Jacques Chirac
Jacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...
in March 2005. Nevertheless, Bonnet never returned to prison as he was granted probation
Probation
Probation literally means testing of behaviour or abilities. In a legal sense, an offender on probation is ordered to follow certain conditions set forth by the court, often under the supervision of a probation officer...
(liberté conditionnelle) by a Paris judge on 2006-06-09, a decision confirmed on appeal on 2006-10-12. Neither was he ever sacked from the civil service: he was suspended after his arrest in May 1999, and retired on a normal pension in October 2006.