This November is a strange one for Bernard Bajolet. The diplomat, who headed France's DGSE foreign intelligence service from 2013 to 2017, has been on trial at a Paris-region court since 6 November for the alleged attempted extortion and attack on the freedom of 76-year-old Franco-Swiss financier Alain Duménil (IO, 03/11/25).
The spymaster stands accused of having given the green light to a risky operation. In 2016, with the help of France's PAF border police, two DGSE agents detained Duménil for



