Philippe Daudet affair

Philippe Daudet Affair

Léon Daudet (left) with Philippe (right)

The Philippe Daudet affair, named after Philippe Daudet (1909–1923), was a French legal filing and subsequent controversy following the suicide of Philippe Daudet at age 14.^[1][a] The initial investigation into Philippe's death concluded he had committed suicide via gunshot, following plans to carry out anarchist attacks against the French government and other high-profile individuals. Philippe was the son of Action Française founder Léon Daudet, who successfully petitioned to the court to investigate Philippe's death, while rejecting the results of the initial investigation. Léon instead claimed there was a grander conspiracy against himself and his family. Léon mobilized Action Française and the Daudet family, both claiming that anarchist groups, French police, and the French government had conspired in his son's death. The case and its appeals were concluded in 1925, with the official ruling being that there was no evidence of murder or conspiracy.

The case received significant media coverage, with French newspapers promoting Léon Daudet's claims of political assassination. This event occurred during the same time as the Germaine Berton trial, where Berton, a French anarchist, had admitted to but was subsequently acquitted of the assassination Action Française member Marius Plateau. Léon Daudet was later jailed after he called for violence against multiple French politicians for their perceived mishandling of both cases.

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