The Paris Court of Appeal refused Thursday, December 2 to note the prescription of the prosecution against Rachida Dati in the investigation of contracts signed by a Dutch subsidiary of the Renault-Nissan automotive group when Carlos Ghosn was the CEO, indicated his lawyers at AFP.
The investigating chamber of the court of appeal rejected the request of the former Minister of Justice, considering it "
unfounded
".
Read alsoHow Nissan organized the fall of Carlos Ghosn
"
It is for me a completely incomprehensible decision, we are going to appeal in cassation
", declared to AFP Me Olivier Pardo, who defends Rachida Dati alongside Olivier Baratelli, Olivier Bluche and Francis Teitgen.
"
This decision is unfounded in view of the investigation carried out in Brussels at the time,
" added Baratelli.
In their request, consulted by AFP, the lawyers argued in particular that a controversy over the combination by Rachida Dati of the functions of MEP and lawyer had erupted in 2009, and that the President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz had him asked for clarification in 2014.
However, neither Martin Schulz, nor the High Authority for Transparency of Public Life (HATPV) then went to court.
Suspicion of covert lobbying
At the end of an interrogation on July 21, Rachida Dati was indicted by two Parisian financial examining magistrates for "
corruption and passive influence peddling by person invested with a public elective mandate
" in the European Parliament , where she was elected at the time, and "
concealment of breach of trust
".
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. The defense of the former Minister of Justice considers that no element of his 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 (PNF) does not opened an investigation in 2019 into contracts concluded by the Dutch subsidiary of the Renault-Nissan alliance, RNBV, then headed by Carlos Ghosn, after a complaint from a Renault shareholder.
The current mayor of the 7th arrondissement of Paris received 900,000 euros in fees as a lawyer between 2010 and 2012 when she was at the time also a Member of the European Parliament.
Justice seeks in particular to know if his income corresponds to specific activities or if it was a job of convenience that could have masked lobbying in the European Parliament, prohibited for MEPs.