Rachida Dati asked Thursday, October 21 to the Paris Court of Appeal to note the prescription of the offenses for which she is being indicted in the investigation into contracts signed by RNBV, a Dutch subsidiary of the Renault-Nissan automotive group, when Carlos Ghosn was the CEO.
The former Minister of Justice was indicted on July 21 by two investigating judges from the Paris court for "
corruption and passive trading in influence by a person with a public elective mandate
" in the European Parliament, where she was elected at the time, and "
concealment of breach of trust
".
Read alsoHow Nissan organized the fall of Carlos Ghosn
A few months earlier, in November 2020, she had been placed under the more favorable status of assisted witness for these offenses.
In the meantime, the magistrates heard from Carlos Ghosn in Beirut, as part of international criminal assistance between France and Lebanon.
Rachida Dati's defense believes that no element of her remuneration has been concealed and that, moreover, the three-year limitation period for these offenses has been acquired since 2017. The national financial prosecutor's office only opened an investigation 2019, after the complaint of a Renault shareholder.
The investigative chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal will render its decision on December 2, according to a judicial source.
Two contradictory visions of her role as a consultant
Rachida Dati, 55, is suspected of having received, "
in all confidentiality, even in all opacity
", 900,000 euros between 2010 and 2012 for consulting services recorded in a fee agreement signed on October 28, 2009 with RNBV. As an MEP (2009-2019), she was not authorized to exercise either a consulting activity that did not precede her election, nor a lawyer activity for Renault, due to the aid granted to the manufacturer by the State during the financial crisis of 2008, recall the two magistrates. The latter wonder if the fee agreement could have been used to hide lobbying activity in the European Parliament prohibited to any elected representative.
The LR mayor of the 7th arrondissement of Paris and Carlos Ghosn refuted any irregularity in their hearings consulted by AFP, nevertheless revealing contradictions.
If Rachida Dati joined the alliance, it was to participate in the development of Renault and Nissan in the Maghreb and the Middle East, details the former auto magnate, 67, heard on May 30 and June 1 in Beirut. , where he has been living since his flight from Japan at the end of 2019. "
Rachida Dati interested us more as an interlocutor with the Arab and Muslim world than for her legal skills,
" he explains.
Read also French justice is also studying the Ghosn case
"
I regret that my career has been reduced to this place of woman in the Muslim world
", answers Rachida Dati, confronted with the answers of the former CEO.
"
I have in any case signed a lawyer agreement
".
During her missions of "
business diplomacy
", she did not present herself "
certainly
" as a lawyer but as "
someone very close to the alliance
", according to Carlos Ghosn.
“
I exercise, within the framework of this convention, a mission of international lawyer
” in order to “
advise the industrial strategy and implement the decisions
” for the alliance and not only for Renault, retorts it.
"Total transparency"
The former Franco-Lebanese-Brazilian boss assures us that “
transparency was total
” on Rachida Dati's collaboration with the automotive group. However, “
no annual report, nor any written record of its services, interventions, could be found or provided. At this stage, no actor likely to be affected by the subjects
"on which Rachida Dati was supposed to work"
has confirmed that she was acting as a lawyer or adviser for Renault
", underline the judges. "
Me in any case I know what I did
", affirms Rachida Dati, also confronted with the hearings of the ex-right arm of Carlos Ghosn, Mouna Sepehri, and of the legal director of Renault until 2011, Christian Husson .
Emails, notes and the report of a meeting in January 2010 suggest Rachida Dati's lobbying actions in the European Parliament on automobile regulation.
"
I have never asked Rachida Dati anything about European legislation,
" assures Carlos Ghosn, recalling that it was more effective to intervene through the Association of European Automobile Manufacturers (ACEA ) of which he was a member.
In this case, Mouna Sepehri and Christian Husson were placed under the status of assisted witness, just like the criminologist Alain Bauer, RNBV's security consultant for one million euros between 2012 and 2016. Carlos Ghosn is not prosecuted in this stage.
