Alain Bauer on France's Legal System Amid the Investigation of Telegram's CEO

the other story that we're following very closely happened in the last 20 minutes in Paris prosecutors say the chief executive of telegram is officially under investigation after his dramatic arrest this weekend the Russian born pavl durov has been transferred to court earlier from the police cells this is the video of him leaving police custody his bail was set at $5.6 million he's forbidden from leaving France and now there's some questions about whether he is going to be charged French authorities have said he may telegram may have been complicit in several crimes including fraud drug trafficking child pornography um we're still waiting to find out what those charges might be and how long he will be held or the broad investigation Alan B is the French criminology professor at the national Conservatory of arts and trades he joins me now for those of us not familiar or too familiar with the inquisitorial versus adversarial system that's used in France what is the significance of this transfer from police custody if you will to the courts where now the investigative magistrates and judges take over oh first uh thanks for having me Richard first the French system works exactly the same but not at the same pace and not the same way EX at the moment there was a open of an incriminatory discussion about 12 issues most of them were complicity one is about conspiracy and uh the police was just asking questions and with the answer they sent after 24 48 or 96 hours depending of the gravity of the acts to the judge who decide or not to incriminate the judge decided to incriminate in ask him to stay on the French territory get his passport out and now his lawyers are going to argue and ask an appeal court to review the incrimination and decide if they are substantial or just not depending on what was the real issue which is not freedom of speech but the way in telegram May organize or not uh disposition to sell child pornography Dr let let me jump in here sir um because what we have here is a chief executive being held uh personally liable if you will for whatever might be the corporate misdeeds which is somewhat unusual I mean it's not unknown we have had individuals of a company on corporate manslaughter and those sort of things but we've not really seen it like this before but we in France the chief is responsible for what is subordinate do when he doesn't act to make them comply to what may be in the US a RICO Act or a national security letter for example you have a lot of for example the boing CEO was under grilled by uh par by Congress about what his Engineers were doing or not doing and he was counted accountable for what it is it's the same system in France and now the attorneys are going to argue about is he responsible or not and is he under a French special uh legislation that make it responsible okay but but but Alan you you by the way I can now confirm that he has been charged with a variety of offenses we are we're not sure exactly the range of that is it unusual for him to have been charged so quickly before really the investigative magistrat or the investigative part has got underway but that's the beginning in fact what you see is the beginning of the investigative matters is there was an opening of an inquiry during this inquiry he was arrested then he was questioned and now is incriminated and he will go to defend himself that's the way it works so he has been charged now so we do actually have the charges that he will eventually have to go before another Court to actually face the answers on exactly he has 12 incrimination not all of them are charged now but we will have a very specific communication by the attorney about it is charged under a national organized crime special division of the national attorney France not a district attorney and is under kind of a RICO organ organized crime issues you gave the example of the Boeing case and certainly the chief executive um was hauled if you will for an accountability as you point out and there was talk about whether or not there could be prosecutions uh but it is exceptionally rare for a chief executive to be prosecuted criminally for the acts of their company would you say it is rare for the jurov case for the for for for the authorities to go against the chief executive no we just had a few of them recently for complicity for tourism complicity for uh paying tourists to help the company continuing their activities in very complicated areas so surprisingly or not the French judicial system is going very uh on the top now it's more frequent that what we think but it's new so finally when it does come to trial again you know help our help me and our viewers understand jury trial trial by judge how what what is the the French system for actually determining guilt well that's a system that's the thing that will be discussed by the lawyers first they will contest the incrimination and that will go to a appeal court that will decide that if the incrimination is correct or not correct then if it's very if it's a criminal matter it will go by jury if it's not a criminal matter it will go on the system with three judges Alan I suspect you're going to be answering many questions about the about the intricacies look come back again sir we're going to need you don't go too far to help us understand uh the system there and how it's progressing I'm grateful for you thank you sir joining us thank you Colorado