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Francis Szpiner

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Francis Szpiner
Szpiner in 2020
Member of the French Senate for Paris
Incumbent
Assumed office
2 October 2023
Mayor of the 16th arrondissement of Paris
In office
11 July 2020 – 7 November 2023
Preceded byDanièle Giazzi
Succeeded byJérémy Redler
Councillor of Paris
Incumbent
Assumed office
28 June 2020
MayorAnne Hidalgo
Personal details
Born (1954-03-22) 22 March 1954 (age 70)
Paris, France
Political partyThe Republicans
EducationLycée Jacques-Decour
Alma materPanthéon-Assas University
ProfessionLawyer

Francis Szpiner (born 22 March 1954) is a French lawyer, writer and politician of The Republicans who serves as the mayor of the 16th arrondissement of Paris between 2020 and 2023.[1] He was elected Senator of Paris in September 2023.[2] He was an attorney for several prominent French politicians.

Education and early life

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He was born as the youngest of three siblings and the only son into a family with a Jewish-Polish background.[3] His grandparents fled from the Nazis and his parents were printers.[3] After he attended high school at the Lycée Jacques-Decour,[4] he studied law and then joined, in the early 1970s, the Institute of Criminology in Paris of the Panthéon-Assas University.[4] He became a lawyer and a member of the Paris Bar Association [fr] in 1975.[5]

Professional career

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Throughout his career as a lawyer he represented several prominent clients before court and was a legal counselor to Jacques Chirac, Madame Claude or Bernard Tapie.[6] Szpiner represented Jean-Bédel Bokassa, the former Emperor of the Central African Republic during his trial for treason and murder in the Central African capital Bangui.[7] In June 1987, Bokassa was sentenced to death for murder, but acquitted from charges on cannibalism.[8] In 2001, he represented Michel Tabachnik in his trial regarding the mass suicides organized by Order of the Solar Temple where Tabachnik was acquitted.[9] In 2003, during Abdullah Öcalan's appeal at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, he was a lawyer representing the Turkish Government.[10]

The ECHR ruled that Öcalan did not have a fair trial and ordered Turkey to pay a remuneration.[10] He represented the former French Prime Minister and then Mayor of Bordeaux Alain Juppé in a trial, in which Juppé was accused of providing fictitious jobs in the city hall of Paris.[11] Juppé was sentenced to a suspended prison sentence and given 10 year political ban in January 2004.[12] Then he was the attorney for the relatives of the murdered Jewish Moroccan Ilhan Halimi. Halimi was sequestrated and killed by members of the Gang of Barbarians.[13] The prosecution alleged Halimi was murdered for being a Jew and Szpiner obtained a life sentence for the gang leader in 2006, but demanded higher sentences for his accomplices.[13] He also represented the entrepreneur Hubert Haddad who had been accused of bribing the President of French Polynesia Gaston Flosse.[14]

Haddad and Flosse were both sentenced to five year imprisonment in October 2012.[15] He represented the victims of Carlos the Jackal.[16] For Carlos he obtained a life imprisonment.[4] In 2013 he co-founded the Law Firm Stas & Associates[17] In 2015 he represented Qatar who sued Florian Phillipot for repeatedly accusing Qatar of financing terrorism.[18] He represented the Government of Senegal in a trial against the mayor of Dakar Khalifa Sall.[19] The mayor of Dakar was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment for corruption charges in 2018 but pardoned by the Senegalese president Macky Sall in September 2019.[20]

The authorities of the city of Paris's announced on 8 May 2024, that a high street, ergo a boulevard in France will be named after the 2024 murdered Vladimir Putin's opponent, Alexei Navalny, and designated as L 'avenue Alexei Navalny for the 16th arrondissement, very close to the Russian embassy in Paris, with a monument memorial for the generations to come, after the initiative by Francis Szpiner's idea.[21]

Political career

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In 1990, he was appointed chief of staff to Alexandre Léontieff, then president of the government of French Polynesia;[4] in 2002, he ran against Arnaud Montebourg in the sixth district of Saône-et-Loire.[22] In the municipal elections of 2020, he was elected as the mayor of the 16th arrondissement of Paris representing The Republicans.[23]

Books

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Recognition

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References

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  1. ^ "Paris : Francis Szpiner, un avocat célèbre maire du 16e arrondissement". Le Parisien (in French). 20 July 2020. Retrieved 31 August 2020.
  2. ^ "Francis Szpiner élu sénateur : mairie du XVIe cherche remplaçant pas trop encombrant". Le Parisien (in French). Retrieved 9 January 2024.
  3. ^ a b Nivelle, Pascale. "L'ai-je bien défendu ?". Libération (in French). Retrieved 19 December 2021.
  4. ^ a b c d "Francis Szpiner". Grands Avocats (in French). Retrieved 17 December 2021.
  5. ^ a b Bariety, Aude (6 April 2021). "Me Francis Szpiner, au nom du droit... et de la politique". Le Figaro (in French). Retrieved 18 December 2021.
  6. ^ Gréco, Betrand. "Statut de Paris : le maire du 16e, Francis Szpiner, "lance un appel à Hidalgo"". Le Journal du Dimanche (in French). Retrieved 19 December 2021.
  7. ^ Shoumatoff, Alex (June 1987). "Fall of a savage emperor". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
  8. ^ Goldsmith, Michael (13 June 1987). "Bokassa sentence to death to die for Murders during reign". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 18 December 2021.
  9. ^ "Cinq ans fermes requis contre Tabachnik" [Tabachnik faces five-year prison sentence]. Le Nouvel Obs (in French). 27 April 2001. Retrieved 13 August 2024.
  10. ^ a b "Case of Öcalan v. Turkey" (PDF). European Court of Human Rights. 12 March 2003.
  11. ^ "Bio express. Francis Szpiner avocat depuis 1975". Le Progres (in French). Retrieved 17 December 2021.
  12. ^ "Former French prime minister convicted in fake jobs scheme". NBC. 30 January 2004. Retrieved 18 December 2021.
  13. ^ a b "Gang leader receives life in prison for killing". NBC News. 11 July 2009. Retrieved 19 December 2021.
  14. ^ Viatge, Jean-Pierre. "La santé d'Hubert Haddad met en question la suite du procès". Tahiti infos, les informations de Tahiti (in French). Retrieved 18 December 2021.
  15. ^ rédaction, La (4 October 2012). "5 ans de prison requis pour Gaston Flosse et Hubert Haddad". Radio1 Tahiti (in French). Retrieved 18 December 2021.
  16. ^ "Terrorist Carlos the Jackal to stand trial for 1975 murders". CNN. 12 December 1997. Retrieved 18 December 2021.
  17. ^ "CABINET D'AVOCATS STAS & ASSOCIÉS - Szpiner Toby Ayela Semerdjian". STAS avocats associés (in French). Retrieved 19 December 2021.
  18. ^ "Nicolas Sarkozy rallié par Francis Szpiner... avocat d'Alain Juppé et du Qatar". www.marianne.net (in French). 4 September 2016. Retrieved 18 December 2021.
  19. ^ Wemaere, Alcyone (10 July 2018). "Sénégal : au procès en appel de Khalifa Sall, deux avocats français face-à-face". France 24 (in French). Retrieved 19 December 2021.
  20. ^ "Khalifa Sall, Dakar's ex-mayor, pardoned by Senegal president". BBC. 29 September 2019. Retrieved 19 December 2021.
  21. ^ https://ground.news/article/alexey-navalny-lane-will-appear-in-paris_66ddec [bare URL]
  22. ^ "Francis Szpiner, suppléant d'Eric Raoult". Le Parisien (in French). 16 May 2012. Retrieved 18 December 2021.
  23. ^ Nelken, Sacha; Cosnard, Denis (18 January 2020). "Municipales à Paris : Francis Szpiner, un avocat vedette pour garder le 16e arrondissement à droite". Le Monde (in French). Retrieved 19 December 2021.
  24. ^ a b Szpiner, Francis. "Francis Szpiner - livres et romans de l'auteur aux Editions Table Ronde". www.editionslatableronde.fr (in French). Retrieved 19 December 2021.
  25. ^ Mat d'echecs - Francis Szpiner - Balland - Grand format - Le Hall du Livre NANCY (in French).
  26. ^ "A story of women".
  27. ^ Rosenbaum, Jonathan (15 February 1990). "Story of Women". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 19 December 2021.
  28. ^ Aron, Matthieu (22 November 2020). "Quand maître Szpiner se met dans la tête d'une criminelle". L'Obs (in French). Retrieved 19 December 2021.
  29. ^ "Décret du 14 novembre 2000 portant promotion et nomination". www.legifrance.gouv.fr. 14 November 2000. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
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