In its issue of Thursday, September 17, "Additional investigation" looks back at the underside of Rima Hassan's police custody last spring, in Paris, and highlights the role of Laurent Nuñez in the media excitement which surrounded the hearing of the LFI MEP that day. Based on statements from several witnesses, the investigative magazine reveals that the false information which circulated in the press, according to which narcotics had been found in his belongings, partly emanated from the minister himself.
To understand the chronology of events, we must go back to April 2, when Rima Hassan, having just returned from a trip to Brussels, went to the premises of the Paris judicial police, summoned under police custody. She is to be questioned as part of an investigation into advocating terrorism, after publishing a post on X, which she then deleted, relaying comments by Japanese terrorist Kozo Okamoto. This former member of the Japanese Red Army was one of the perpetrators of the attack perpetrated on May 30, 1972 in the name of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, at Tel Aviv airport, which killed 26 people.
As is the procedure, the police then carry out an inventory of the MEP's belongings and come across, in her handbag, two containers which intrigue them: in the first, a brownish material and in the second, a white product. According to her lawyer, Vincent Brengarth, who accompanied her that day, Rima Hassan immediately explained to them that it was CBD in the two containers, a cannabis derivative sold completely legally. A first test, carried out by investigators, shows that the white product is positive for the presence of cathinone, a molecule that is often found in 3MMC, a synthetic drug whose effects are reputed to be close to cocaine and MDMA.
“Police officers who are specialists in narcotics procedures know this very well: we have to wait for the laboratory results to be certain that it is indeed a narcotic product,” observes Eric Pelletier, police-justice journalist at France Télévisions, interviewed by “Complément d’investigation”. Despite everything, and without waiting for these results, the white product is labeled "3M™" by the police. “This designation is not at all trivial on the part of the investigating services,” considers Vincent Brengarth, recalling that this drug is known to the general public, “particularly since the Pierre Palmade affair” in connection with its use “in chemsex cases.”
“I regret that there were leaks”
Rima Hassan has not even left police custody yet when the information is already leaking to the press and making the headlines from the beginning of the afternoon. “We have seen television sets being held live, news flashes, to comment on unverified information, resulting from a violation of the secrecy of the investigation, beyond any contradiction,” the MEP's lawyer is indignant. The Paris public prosecutor's office immediately requests the opening of an incidental investigation into flagrante delicacy, in connection with the presence of these supposed narcotics.
But a few days later, laboratory tests confirmed that the products discovered in Rima Hassan's personal effects were CBD. But then, who could have transmitted this erroneous information to journalists? The Paris public prosecutor's office, which has since closed the drug possession aspect of this case, has launched proceedings for violation of the secrecy of the investigation, which is still ongoing. The Minister of Justice, Gérald Darmanin, for his part contacted the General Inspectorate of Justice to shed light on these leaks to the media, strongly condemned by the Minister of the Interior in person.
Indeed, the day after Rima Hassan was taken into police custody, Laurent Nuñez affirmed on the BFMTV set that he did not want to make "comments" on this procedure. “I also regret that there were leaks, I understand that there were some leaks before the prosecution spoke,” he added.
“Perhaps an interior minister should not say this kind of thing”
However, as "Additional Investigation" reveals on the basis of detailed testimonies, the day before this interview, i.e. the day Rima Hassan was in police custody, the Minister of the Interior provided information to several journalists who accompanied him by train, returning from an official trip to Bordeaux, alongside the Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu.
In a bar car, off microphones and cameras, journalists ask her if drugs were found in the MEP's bag. The journalists' comments are reported on condition of anonymity. "He told us: 'it may be correct'. Then, he tells us that it is a synthetic 'thing', and that the second product is a derivative of cocaine, and adds that he does not know much about it", relates one of them.
“He explains to us that she is in police custody, that we found two types of drugs. He gives us the point of view of Rima Hassan, who, while in police custody, explains that she bought these substances in Belgium and that she thought it was authorized,” reports another journalist to “Complément d’investigation”. "At the time," he testifies, "I said to myself: 'but he doesn't realize that he is giving us completely confidential information (...) and that perhaps a Minister of the Interior should not say this kind of thing next to his Prime Minister, in the middle of a bar car.' Relying on the words of Laurent Nuñez, another journalist, also present during this trip, confirmed to his editorial team that "synthetic drugs derived from cocaine" were indeed found in Rima Hassan's belongings.
Contacted by the “Complément d’investigation” teams, Laurent Nuñez initially gave his consent for an interview, before retracting. Questions were sent to him in writing but have remained unanswered to date. For her part, Rima Hassan will be tried for “apology of terrorism” on October 19 and 20. The MEP and her supporters denounce a political trial.
