French lawyers stand trial over ‘forgery’ for drug lord

TWO leading French lawyers stood trial yesterday accused of producing a “false” legal document in court while defending a British drugs kingpin.

Robert Dawes, 50, has been described by the National Crime Agency as “one of the most influential and feared organised criminals in Europe”.

Dawes, from Sutton-in-ashfield, Notts, was tried in 2018 over a plot to smuggle 1.3 tons of cocaine with a street value of €240million (£216million) into France.

The cocaine was found stashed in 20 suitcases on an Air France flight from Venezuela to Paris in 2013.

Dawes, who denied the charges, was heard in secret recordings bragging to a member of a Colombian cartel about his involvement in smuggling the drugs from Venezuela’s capital, Caracas.

The discovery of the cocaine in 2013 caused controversy in Venezuela after a government minister admitted the suitcases had gone through security scanners that had clearly showed the presence of drugs.

However, in a courtroom coup de théâtre, his star lawyers, Joseph Cohensabban, 69, and Xavier Nogueras, 42, produced a document they said proved that Spanish judges had vetoed the phone taps. They insisted the case should be quashed as a result.

It transpired that the document was a forgery and that Spanish authorities had indeed approved the secret recordings. Dawes was convicted to 22 years in prison, including 15 with no possibility of parole.

Yesterday, it was the two lawyers’ turn to stand in the dock alongside Dawes and fellow Briton Evan Hughes, 68, all four accused of attempted fraud and forging a public document, charges they deny.

In their indictment, the investigating magistrates said that while they had not established whether the lawyers knew the documents were forged, they “must have queried their authenticity”.

“They knowingly agreed to renounce [their] independence” by “espousing the disloyal projects and schemes” of their client, they wrote.

The lawyers in the dock argue that while they had been fooled, they had acted in good faith.

Representing Mr Nogueras, his lawyers Matthieu Chirez and Hervé Temime said before the trial: “In no way was he complicit in attempted fraud... and he did not violate any ethical rule.”