For a magistrate and former Minister of Justice, a person who represents the law and justice within her government, the acts committed illustrate both betrayal, contempt, a spirit of struggle and a cover-up. The National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) asked the Paris Criminal Court, Monday September 28, to sentence Rachida Dati for corruption and influence peddling in particular.
The sentences, requested at the end of a four-hour indictment, are severe: four years in prison, two of which are subject to change, accompanied by five years of ineligibility and ban on public service with provisional execution, that is to say with immediate application. If the court follows these requisitions from the National Financial Prosecutor's Office, Rachida Dati would therefore find herself stripped of her mandate as mayor of the 7th arrondissement of Paris and would not be able to rejoin the judiciary as she wishes or practice the profession of lawyer, even if she appeals.
Against Carlos Ghosn, the former CEO of Renault, tried in his absence because he was on the run in Lebanon, also for corruption and influence peddling, in addition to abuse of trust and power, the duo of prosecutors requested four years of imprisonment and a fine of 375,000 euros as well as the maintenance of the arrest warrants targeting him and the deprivation of his civil rights.
“A clear attack on our democracy”
In this case, Rachida Dati, while she was an MEP, is accused of having signed in 2009 a lawyer's fee agreement of 900,000 euros for three years with a Renault-Nissan company, of which Carlos Ghosn was the CEO, all without having provided any effective work. In return for this alleged corruption pact, she would have defended the interests of the car manufacturer in the European Parliament. These are "criminal acts elevated to the top of the offenses against probity", "a clear attack on our democracy, on the trust that citizens have in their elected officials", denounced prosecutor Caroline Genin, the first to speak on Monday.
“From this hearing and our debates emerges a feeling of great sadness, because this hearing reflects the failure of our democratic institutions.”
Caroline Genin, prosecutor
during his indictment
Even if the prosecution assured that it was not happy to "pursue a former Minister of Justice and the former boss of a large French company for such serious acts", the representative of the PNF immediately asserted: Rachida Dati was indeed "hired for corruptive missions, influence peddling, within the European Parliament". And this despite his “particularly brilliant career”, “which arouses admiration”.
“The absence of service characterizes the offenses”
The contract which linked Rachida Dati to Renault-Nissan VB (RNVB) is only “contractual dressing”, according to the PNF. “Madame Dati did not at any time feel the obligation to say that she worked for Renault,” pointed out prosecutor Julien Augereau, speaking in turn. Thus, he considered that the former MEP had carried out “concealment maneuvers” in a “deliberate manner”.
Rachida Dati maintained this attitude at the hearing, according to the representative of the National Financial Prosecutor's Office, affirming that she "considered that it was enough to assert something with sufficient aplomb for it to acquire truth, simply by the force of the verb."
"In the manner of Descartes and 'I think therefore I am', the process here becomes 'I affirm therefore it exists'."
Julien Augereau, prosecutor
during his indictment
During this time, the defendant, in black tailored pants and vest, remained seated on the defendant's bench, almost curled up, her back turned to the public and the civil parties, her gaze turned towards her defense or towards the ground.
According to Julien Augereau, "the absence of services carried out despite the remuneration characterizes the offenses" while "the only real services of Rachida Dati are those which characterize corruption and influence peddling". This is why the PNF asked the court to find her guilty, like Carlos Ghosn, of these two offenses, as well as abuse of power and breach of trust for the former CEO of Renault, and concealment of these offenses for Rachida Dati.
“Madame Dati has given up nothing”
The prosecutor continued the indictment by listing "the elements of evidence" which exist, according to her, to prove the corruption pact that Rachida Dati would have entered into with Carlos Ghosn, when she was an MEP, considering that there are "sufficient elements and material to convict them of corruption". In passing, the PNF magistrate dismantled the arguments put forward by the defendant and her defense.
According to Caroline Genin, Rachida Dati exercised her influence as an MEP "in her ease of interaction with European institutions", "in the public credit attached to her mandate as a parliamentarian and her function as former Minister of Justice", but also with "her personality and her interpersonal skills".
“They both knew that behind their screen was a corruption pact.”
Julien Augereau, prosecutor
during his indictment
Just before announcing the required sentences, prosecutor Julien Augereau quoted Montesquieu's From the Spirit of the Laws: "Political virtue is a renunciation of oneself." “Madame Dati has not given up anything, and especially not 'herself',” said the representative of the National Financial Prosecutor's Office. An attack to which his lawyers did not fail to respond, in their pleadings, Monday afternoon.
“It’s a civil death”
“I am a little stunned, stunned by the requisitions that I have heard, and I still speak astounded, began Antoine Beauquier, thus opening the pleadings of Rachida Dati's lawyers. I was stunned by the requests for a sentence: what is being asked of Ms. Dati is a civil death.” “We want to ban her from the profession of lawyer, magistrate, we want to punish her civilly,” he insisted. “I am stunned because I think she is innocent. And even if we think she is guilty, she does not deserve such a radical sanction,” argued the lawyer.
“I had the impression just now of finding myself on the strike square, you demanded the return of the scaffold of civil death, the return of the professional death penalty,” said his colleague Olivier Baratelli, shortly after. “Without a job, without a return, without hope,” thundered the lawyer. "Is this justice according to the prosecution?! Is this the main principles? That's not justice, and I know that the court knows it."
“This is judicial cruelty.”
Olivier Baratelli, lawyer for Rachida Dati
in his pleading
“You would have even an ounce of doubt, you would release Rachida Dati”, he demanded in court on behalf of his client, “sitting on the folding seat of infamy”. At the end of her defense pleadings, the defendant will be able to pronounce her last words. Then the decision will then be put under advisement, on a date that the court will announce before retiring.
