Charles Debbasch

Charles Debbasch also made an incursion into politics in the 1983 French municipal elections: he stood in Aix-en-Provence, obtaining 5.77% of the vote.

Alleging that the police had attempted to enter his vehicle by force without a permit, he ensconced himself in his faculty office under the guard of a group of students devoted to his cause.

[6] Brought before the criminal court on charges of fraud, forgery and breach of trust, Charles Debbasch was condemned on 20 February 2002.

[16] Asked by the newspaper La Croix in 2007 about the advisability of retaining a man condemned by French law as an advisor, Faure Gnassingbé was explicit in responding that "It is not within the African worldview to rid oneself of anyone who has long been loyal.".

[19] He appeared to play a crucial role in the "constitutional coup d'État" by which Faure Gnassingbé succeeded his father, general Eyadéma, who had ruled Togo for thirty-eight years, in February 2005,[20] in an affair in which it is difficult to separate fact from journalistic exaggeration.

According to the author of the article, sources close to the President of the University admitted that "all the world knows that these exchanges are completely fictional" and that it was "a political decision that had been made at a higher level.".

[25] On 16 May 2007, Charles Debbasch was arrested at Brussels airport, where he was preparing to depart for Lomé, and was placed under court supervision with a ban on leaving Belgium.

[27] Togolese sources defend Charles Debbasch, who still swears that he is totally innocent of the charges laid against him,[28] and even launching a legal counter-offensive.

The website of the Togolese Republic, republicoftogo.com, reports that Charles Debbasch launched a counterattack, first by filing a complaint of fraudulent judgement[29] and then – concerning the events in Belgium – against Michel de Bonnecorse, former advisor on African Affairs to Jacques Chirac.

[30] In its edition of 10 May 2006, the Canard enchaîné Alain Guédé published an article (L'université française finance l'exil doré d'un condamné), mentioning the Vasarely affair once more and stating that his salary continued to be paid by the state education department (€5000 / month from 2003 to 2006) in accordance with an agreement between Paul Cézanne University (Jacques Bourdon) and Togo.

[34] Debbasch appeared to Patricia Allémonière, a journalist at TF1 who interviewed him in Togo, as a "man of the old sort of France, a little worn, bruised by the ostracism which he feels victim of in Paris.

[36] Finally, in what bordered on an affectation, Charles Debbasch very openly loved animals – Vincent Hugeux who encountered him in Kara reports his lover for the parakeet of the city's best hotel[37] (Debbasch also mentioned the bird in the title of his 2006 book: La succession d'Eyadema : le perroquet de Kara).