Sacked Macron ex-bodyguard used diplomatic passports
01 January, 2019
The disgraced former bodyguard of French President Emmanuel Macron admitted Sunday he had used his diplomatic passports “for personal convenience” after being fired in August, a day after investigators opened a probe into his failure to return the documents.
Alexandre Benalla, a former campaign bodyguard who got a senior job following Macron’s election victory, has been dogged by scandal since July when accusations emerged he had roughed up protestors.
Macron’s office and Benalla clashed last week over accusations that he used two diplomatic passports after his dismissal, which the Foreign Ministry said would be a crime.
Criticism over the presidency’s handling of the issue has been growing since local media reported Benalla met with African presidents, in what officials fear was an attempt to profit from his former insider status.
In an interview published Sunday, Benalla acknowledged using the passports for private travel but said he would return them to the ministry “within days.”
“I may have been wrong to use these passports,” he told French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche.
“But I did it for personal convenience to facilitate my passage through airports. Under no circumstances did I use them for business.”
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