FRESSOZ AND ROIRE v. FRANCE JUDGMENT 9 Contrary to the court below, we therefore hold that, in this case, it has been established that the offence of breach of professional confidence was committed, and that the fact that the culprit has not been identified is irrelevant. Mr Roire told the investigating judge that the photocopies of Jacques Calvet's tax notices were sent to him anonymously at the newspaper, in an envelope addressed to him personally. He confirmed that he had questioned various people in order to ensure that they were indeed copies of genuine tax documents. Mr Roire's article, containing a reproduction of the documents in question, was submitted to Roger Fressoz, the publishing director of Le Canard enchaîné, who, personally, passed it for press. Mr Fressoz told the investigating judge that he saw the extracts from Jacques Calvet's tax notices at that point. He explained that – as a general rule – copy is passed for press by the senior editorial assistant, who, if there is a problem, consults the editor and, in the last resort, himself. The offence of handling the fruits of a breach of professional confidence was characterised, in the instant case, by the publication of documents obtained in breach of the provisions of Article L. 103 of the Code of Tax Procedure and Article 378 of the Criminal Code and was committed by Mr Roire and Mr Fressoz given that, in the light of the nature of the documents and of the checks which Mr Roire says he carried out, the defendants must have known that those documents came from a tax file. Moreover, this explains why the article was passed for press by Mr Fressoz, the publishing director, and not an editorial assistant or the editor. It is worth recalling that, although Mr Fressoz was not the person to whom the documents were sent, he saw them before giving his authorisation to publish the article reproducing extracts from them. Therefore, both the actus reus and the mens rea of the offence of handling the fruits of a breach of professional confidence are present in his case as well as in that of the author of the article, Mr Roire ...” 4. In the Court of Cassation 23. Mr Fressoz and Mr Roire appealed to the Court of Cassation on points of law. In their grounds of appeal (and subsequently in a reply to Mr Calvet's pleadings), they submitted two arguments. As the first ground of appeal, Mr Fressoz argued that, since he was a publishing director as defined in the Act of 29 July 1881, the lower courts