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IMF confirms faith in Lagarde after police raid

The IMF said Thursday said it remains confident in Managing Director Christine Lagarde despite a French probe into her handling of a high-profile scandal when she was a government minister.

Published: 28 March 2013 16:29 CET

IMF confirms faith in Lagarde after police raid

Photo: IMF

"It would not be appropriate to comment on a case that has been and that is currently before the French judiciary," International Monetary Fund spokesman Gerry Rice told reporters in a briefing.

However, he added, "the executive board has been briefed on this matter, including recently, and continues to express its confidence in the managing director's ability to effectively carry out her duties."

On March 20, French police raided Lagarde's Paris home in connection with the investigation into her decision in 2007, when she was minister in charge of the economy, to ask an arbitration panel to rule on a dispute between disgraced tycoon Bernard Tapie and the collapsed bank Credit Lyonnais.

The arbitration resulted in Tapie being awarded around 400 million euros ($510 million).

That outcome triggered outrage among critics who insisted the state should never have taken the risk of being forced to pay money to Tapie, a convicted criminal.

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Man jailed after dismembered body found under Paris bridge

The dismembered body was found on Saturday evening under the Pont d’Austerlitz by firefighters who had come to put out a rubbish fire. The suspect turned himself in the following morning.

The man, born in 1989, had reportedly said the victim was a disabled person for whom he was a carer and with whom he had had a dispute.

The suspect, who the Paris public prosecutor’s office said had incriminated himself and had been questioned in police custody, appeared before an investigating judge on Tuesday.

He was charged with voluntary manslaughter of a vulnerable person, punishable by life imprisonment, and causing bodily harm. He was then remanded in custody, said the public prosecutor.

The suspect’s lawyer, Emanuel de Dinechin, told AFP that “it is not yet possible to determine the exact circumstances of the crime at this stage.”

“It will be up to the investigators to shed light on the material and psychological elements that came into play when the crime was committed,” he said.

The dismembered body was reportedly found in a suitcase. The place where it was found is frequented by homeless people.

French daily Le Parisien said the pair met a few months ago, and the suspect began to look after a quadriplegic, who was in his 50s. At first, things went well, but an altercation between the two turned tragic, the newspaper said.

For nearly two months, the carer kept the corpse under the bed, Le Parisien said.

When the smell became unbearable, he cut up the body with a saw, stuffed the pieces into a suitcase and dropped it off at the foot of the Pont d’Austerlitz before setting it on fire.

According to the newspaper, the body of an “adult male” was missing “upper and lower limbs”.

“The body was complete, but in several pieces,” Le Parisien quoted a source close to the case as saying.

The suspect killed the disabled man with his bare hands and multiple injuries were found on the victim’s body, said Le Parisien.

Last year the dismembered body of a woman was found in the Buttes-Chaumont park in northeast Paris, a popular spot for picnicking families and joggers.

The woman’s husband admitted to killing her and was charged with spousal murder. The couple were married for 26 years and had three children.

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