French President Emmanuel Macron has appointed Gendarmerie Colonel Benoit Ferrand as his new head of security to replace General Lionel Lavergne due to the involvement of the latter in the Benalla case, l'Opinion reported on Saturday.
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The appointment comes after in March, the French Senate's executive body agreed to refer three senior officials in the president's administration to prosecutors after they were suspected of providing false testimony in the case involving Emmanuel Macron's former security aide Alexandre Benalla. The 26-member panel pointed to "inconsistencies and contradictions" in the statements to its investigative committee by Macron's head of security services, Lionel Lavergne.