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• Direct Trial of Rachida Dati: the National Financial Prosecutor's Office asks the court to declare the former minister guilty of concealment of abuse of power and concealment of breach of trust
The last day of the trial of the mayor of the 7th arrondissement of Paris and Carlos Ghosn is devoted to the indictment of the prosecutors, who have not yet mentioned the other charges or the required sentences, then to the pleadings of the defense.
What you need to know
The hearing is coming to an end. At the trial of Rachida Dati and Carlos Ghosn for corruption and influence peddling, the debates end on Monday September 28. The National Financial Prosecutor's Office asked the Paris Criminal Court to declare Rachida Dati guilty of concealment of abuse of power and concealment of breach of trust, and Carlos Ghosn of abuse of power and abuse of trust. The corruption and influence peddling offenses will be addressed later in the requisitions, after a quarter-hour recess. We will then know the penalties requested. Follow our live stream.
Up to 10 years in prison incurred. The PNF accuses the mayor of the 7th arrondissement of Paris and the former CEO of Renault, tried in her absence, of having entered into a corruption pact, in return for lobbying for Renault-Nissan, between 2009 and 2013, in the European Parliament, where Rachida Dati was elected. The former lawyer, who is now requesting her reinstatement in the judiciary, had signed a fee agreement of 900,000 euros over three years. She faces a fine of 450,000 euros, or half of the amount collected, up to ten years in prison and a maximum five-year ineligibility sentence.
A skirmish with the lawyers of the civil parties. Thursday, in the morning, Rachida Dati launched into a verbal joust. While she had been holding back since the opening of her trial, the ex-minister finally came out in the face of sharp questions from the civil parties, who scrutinized her professional career and the work as a lawyer that she says she carried out at the request of Carlos Ghosn when she was an MEP. The day before, tension had already increased a notch during an incisive questioning of the assessor judges and the PNF.
All allegations forcefully denied. While there remain few written traces of her work, Rachida Dati, sticking to her guns, assured, from the start of her interrogation, on the evening of September 17, that she had carried out legal missions for Renault-Nissan, as provided for in her agreement. “I signed a lawyer’s contract. And I worked as a lawyer,” insisted the defendant.
The shadow of Carlos Ghosn. Throughout the hearing, the former CEO of Renault, targeted by several arrest warrants and on the run in Lebanon since the end of 2019, a year after his resounding arrest in Japan, was conspicuous by his absence. Citing non-compliance with the deadlines for his summons before the French courts, the 72-year-old former big boss requested a postponement of the hearing to a later date. But the court kept the trial going as scheduled. “Here is the great obscene absentee from this hearing, who lives happily in Beirut, bunkered down in his villa,” denounced, in his pleading, Thursday evening, Kami Haeri, one of the two lawyers for Renault SAS, recalling that Carlos Ghosn was the subject of another investigation, opened in Nanterre, much more substantial.
Violaine Jaussent
franceinfo journalist 0 sec ago
#DATI The National Financial Prosecutor's Office asks the Paris criminal court to declare Rachida Dati guilty of concealment of abuse of power and concealment of breach of trust, and Carlos Ghosn of abuse of power and abuse of trust. "Do the 900,000 euros paid [as part of the lawyer's fee agreement] correspond to real and proportionate work carried out by Rachida Dati? At this stage the answer is no", supports the prosecutor.
Response from franceinfo
0 seconds ago
According to Julien Augereau, “the absence of services provided despite remuneration characterizes the offenses”. On the other hand, the prosecutor believes that "the only real services of Rachida Dati are those which characterize corruption and influence peddling". These two offenses will be addressed in the remainder of the requisitions, which will take place after a quarter-hour suspension of the hearing. We will then know the penalties requested.
Violaine Jaussent
franceinfo journalist 0 sec ago
#DATI The representative of the PNF attacks Rachida Dati on her attitude throughout the hearing: she "considered that it was enough to say something with enough aplomb for it to acquire a truth, by the sheer force of the verb". "In the manner of Descartes and 'I think therefore I am', the process here becomes 'I affirm therefore it exists'", tackles the prosecutor. During this time, the defendant, in tailored pants and black vest, sits 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.
Violaine Jaussent
franceinfo journalist 0 sec ago
#DATI At the trial of Rachida Dati, prosecutor Julien Augereau lists the "concealment maneuvers" undertaken, according to him, by the former MEP, who 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. "For the corruption pact to be established, this does not require a contractual relationship. When this is the case, it is to give a regular appearance to remuneration which is not regular", explains the representative of the PNF, who describes the signed agreement as "contractual dressing".
In parallel with her missions as a lawyer, Rachida Dati was an MEP. She is suspected of having carried out illegal lobbying in the interests of Renault in the European Parliament. "Ms. Dati did not feel at any time the obligation to say that she worked for Renault", points out the prosecutor, who considers that there is therefore "no doubt that the concealment maneuvers are characterized and carried out in a deliberate manner, in a manner attributable to Rachida Dati".
“The European Parliament has always ignored everything about Rachida Dati's clients and the identity of her clients, and she once again said at the bar that professional secrecy prevented her from giving the names of her firm's clients,” insists Julien Augereau, who speaks of a “fraudulent concert” regarding the actions of the former MEP and the former boss of Renault.
#DATI Last day of trial for Rachida Dati, notably for corruption and influence peddling. She is referred to the Paris criminal court alongside Carlos Ghosn, the former CEO of Renault, tried in his absence. The hearing resumes with the requisitions of the two magistrates of the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF), scheduled to last four hours. “From this hearing and our debates emerges a feeling of great sadness, because this hearing reflects the failure of our democratic institutions,” begins prosecutor Caroline Genin.
Caroline Genin then recalls that Carlos Ghosn and Rachida Dati face 10 years of imprisonment and additional penalties, such as ineligibility, "intended to prevent recidivism", for "criminal acts elevated to the top of the offenses against probity". “These are facts which clearly undermine our democracy, the trust that citizens have in their elected officials,” insists the prosecutor.
“The PNF is not happy to have to prosecute a former Minister of Justice and the former boss of a large French company for such serious facts,” underlines Caroline Genin, who wishes to salute the “particularly brilliant career” of Rachida Dati, “which arouses admiration”. But, for the prosecution, Rachida Dati was indeed “hired for corruptive missions, influence peddling, within the European Parliament”. “This will be the meaning of our requisitions,” she says by way of conclusion of this first part.
