LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP
Illustrative photo by Rachida Dati, November 11, 2024 in Paris.
JUSTICE – A former Minister of Justice in court? The National Financial Prosecutor’s Office requested, on Wednesday November 13, a trial before the criminal court, notably for corruption and influence peddling against the current Minister of Culture Rachida Dati and the former boss of the Renault-Nissan automobile group, Carlos Ghosn, indicated the public prosecutor this Friday the 15th.
Both personalities dispute the accusations in this case. Rachida Dati is suspected of having received 900,000 euros from RNBV, a subsidiary of the Renault-Nissan alliance, without compensation for real work, between 2010 and 2012, while she was a lawyer and European MP (2009 -2019). Amounts which could have been used to hide lobbying activity in the European Parliament.
In detail, the PNF confirmed having requested a trial against Rachida Dati for concealment of abuse of power and breach of trust, corruption and passive influence peddling by person invested with a public elective mandate within a international organization, the European Parliament.
Dati challenges the procedure
“An indictment is only the prosecution’s view of a case. It does not reflect reality,” reacted the minister’s lawyers to the AFP. “A legal deadline now opens during which we will respond point by point to counter this fragmented and inaccurate vision”assured Mes Olivier Baratelli and Olivier Pardo. The Minister of Culture, who was also Keeper of the Seals (2007-2009), considers these prescribed facts in particular and has already increased the number of appeals in this direction to put an end to the prosecution. In vain.
On the evening of this Friday, Rachida Dati denounced in a press release a “infamous indictment” et “shocking”. She a “instrumentalization of this affair by (s)his political opponents in contempt of all principles” and ensures to face “this new ordeal with serenity and determination”.
In this case, Carlos Ghosn has been targeted since April 2023 by an international arrest warrant. He risks a trial for abuse of power by a company director, breach of trust, corruption and active influence peddling, in a case in which the Renault company has become a civil party.
The man, who has Lebanese, French and Brazilian nationalities, was arrested at the end of 2018 in Japan where he was to be tried for alleged financial embezzlement when he was at the head of the Renault-Nissan group. He found refuge in Lebanon at the end of 2019 after an incredible escape from Japan. His lawyers were not immediately available for comment.
The final decision on the holding of a possible trial rests with the investigating judges in charge of the case, the PNF specifying that an appeal is still pending (the court has been seized, but the case not yet judged) before the chamber of the instruction of the Paris Court of Appeal.
Source: www.huffingtonpost.fr
