Suicide ahead of Chinese weddings trial
Print Edition
A FORMER French mayor committed suicide yesterday just hours before he was due to stand trial for his role in a scheme to charge Chinese couples for mock wedding ceremonies in the picturesque Loire Valley city of Tours.
France, the world’s most popular tourist destination, draws thousands of Chinese couples each year who have themselves photographed in wedding outfits in Paris or other romantic settings, such as the chateaus for which the Loire is famous.
Jean Germain was accused of being complicit between 2007 and 2011 in a scheme run by a former aide organizing wedding tours that included a fake ceremony in Tours town hall.
In a suicide note whose contents were relayed by his lawyer, Germain wrote that he had only acted with the aim of boosting local tourism and that he had not benefited personally. His aide was the head of the firm that organized the wedding tours.
No details were available on how much was charged for the weddings for more than 200 Chinese couples.
Germain, 67, left a “goodbye letter” before disappearing without trace, his lawyer Dominique Tricaud told reporters at the opening of the trial.
“The last time I saw him was last week. He said that no one in his family had ever stood accused in court ... he saw it as a sort of dishonor,” the lawyer said.
Police later said he had been found dead near his home. “According to the very initial elements of the inquiry, we’re looking at a suicide,” police said.
Six people are on trial over alleged kickbacks linked to US$815,000 that the city spent from 2008 to 2011 to lure Chinese. Some of the weddings were presided over by Germain.
A member of his staff, Lise Han, stands accused of fraud, collusion and mishandling public funds. While she was working at the City Hall on tourism issues, she was also allegedly running a private company organizing “wedding trips.”
The trips did not include a real wedding ceremony but couples travelled long distances for these “romantic wedding” packages and were photographed in wedding attire in stunning locations, including the Tours City Hall.
The mayor even posed with the couples in his full official dress.
Although she resigned from her job as head of the organizing group Time Sarl, Han is accused of continuing to run the firm while at City Hall, which was in turn subcontracting the work to her firm.
Germain, who said he was in the dark about Han’s lies and manipulations, stood accused of complicity in collusion and misappropriation of public funds.
More than 1.5 million Chinese tourists visit France every year. The government wants to double that number and has said that Chinese officers would patrol some Paris sites jointly with French counterparts to reassure Chinese tourists after media reports from both countries about muggings targeting them.
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