Georges Fenech

Georges Fenech is a French former magistrate and politician, born on 26 October 1954 in Sousse, Tunisia, to a Maltese father and an Italian mother. His family was repatriated to France in 1963 and settled in Givors. After studying law he became a judge, and among his best known cases were the investigation into the 1975 killing of the Lyon judge François Renaud, which he dropped for lack of evidence in 1992, and the first French case involving Scientology. He left the magistracy for politics and sat for the 11th constituency of the Rhône department in the National Assembly from 2002 to 2008 and again from 2012 to 2017, first for the Union for a Popular Movement and later for The Republicans. In the Assembly he sat on the Law Commission, chaired the 2006 parliamentary commission on cults in France and served on the Outreau trial inquiry. In 2008 he was appointed to head MIVILUDES, the government body that monitors cultic movements. His 2007 re-election was annulled by the Constitutional Council over campaign finance rules, and he was later found guilty twice in Paris courts over a published article and a public statement. He has also written books on justice, security and cults, and since 2017 has worked as a legal affairs consultant for CNews.