Paul Smith
The Judicial Archives relating to Pierre Plantard’s prison sentences of the 1950s are located in the Tribunal de Grand Instance de Thonon-les-Bains – this is the information provided in August 1995 by Hélène Viallet, then the Directeur des Archives départementales de la Haute-Savoie, located in the town of Annecy. This information was provided in response to an enquiry concerning a 2-page letter dated 8 June 1956 from the Mayor of Annemasse to the Sub-Prefect of St Julien-en-Genevois, held in the File containing the original 1956 Statutes of the Priory of Sion [File Number KM 94550], mentioning the following:
The original French: "...nous avons aux archives un note de l’I.N.S.S.E. du 15 décembre 1954 nous avisons que Monsieur Pierre Plantard a été condamné le 17 dec. 1953. Le tribunal à St Julien-en-Genevois a donné six mois de prison pour un ‘abus de confiance’ par application des articles 406, 408 du Code Penal." English Translation: "...in our archives we have a note from the I.N.S.S.E dated 15 December 1954 advising us that Monsieur Pierre Plantard was sentenced on 17 December 1953 by the court in St. Julien-en-Genevois to six months imprisonment for a ‘breach of trust’ under articles 406 and 408 of the Penal Code."
The sentence involved imprisonment and not a suspended sentence. The French would have read "…a donné six mois de prison avec sursis..." had it been a suspended sentence. Articles 406 and 408 of the old-style Penal Code correspond to Articles 314-1, 314-2 and 314-3 of the present Penal Code. These articles are classified in Book III of the Code, ‘Crimes and offences against property’ – theft, extortion, blackmail, fraud, and embezzlement. They are online here. The advice from the Mayor of Annemasse to the Sub-Prefect of St Julien was provided following the formation of the Priory of Sion in 1956 by Pierre Plantard and André Bonhomme and its registration with the French Authorities. The letter dated 8 June 1956 by the Mayor of Annemasse cannot be photocopied because it would violate Article 2 of the Law of Associations dated 16 August 1901. It is available for public inspection and a transcript of it can be made. The Judicial Archives relating to Pierre Plantard’s prison sentences of the 1950s which are kept in Thonon-les-Bains are sealed and are impossible to open without breaking the French Privacy Law. A dossier in the Sub-Prefecture at St Julien-en-Genevois contains correspondence from Mr Roy Davies, Henry Lincoln’s Television Producer from the 1970s, asking for a copy of the Judicial Files relating to Pierre Plantard. Priory of Sion Archives of Paul Smith |
