The French president’s disgraced senior security aide Alexandre Benalla was placed in provisional detention on Tuesday, his lawyer said, a day before the release of a long-awaited Senate report on the so-called “Benalla affair”.

Investigative magistrates took the decision after President Emmanuel Macron’s former staffer allegedly broke the conditions of his bail, said lawyer Jacqueline Laffont.

Benalla faces criminal charges after it emerged in July that he roughed up protesters during a May Day demonstration in Paris while wearing a police helmet.

The “Benalla affair” sparked a major scandal for Macron, prompting a wave of accusations from opponents that the presidency covered it up.

Benalla was fired after the revelations, but officials are worried he may since have been profiting from his former insider status.

Reports that he continued to use diplomatic passports long after his dismissal led to claims he lied to a Senate committee investigating the case.

After a seven-month investigation, the committee is due to release its findings on Wednesday, coupled with recommendations to avoid a repeat of the “dysfunctions at the highest level of the state” revealed by the case.

Benalla’s lawyer said she had already launched an appeal against her client’s provisional detention.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)