Rachida Dati reinstated to the judiciary but will not sit in court

The former Minister of Justice Rachida Dati, soon to be tried for corruption and who must return to the judiciary at her request, will not practice in jurisdiction, that is to say in a tribunal or a court, a judicial source indicated this Saturday.

Defeated in the municipal elections in Paris in March, the current LR mayor of the 7th arrondissement, aged 60, obtained a position as “first substitute for the central administration of justice”, within the ministry. She will be officially reinstated after the opinion of the Superior Council of the Judiciary (CSM).

Rachida Dati must appear soon for corruption and passive influence peddling

According to a judicial source, Rachida Dati will more precisely be responsible for the mission at the Delegation of European and International Affairs (DAEI) of the General Secretariat of the Ministry of Justice and will therefore not be in jurisdiction.

“Rachida Dati has requested her reinstatement as a magistrate, as she has the right to do, and will soon be assigned as part of the classic transparency procedure for magistrates”, the usual procedure for appointment to this body, “that is to say after the opinion of the CSM that the Keeper of the Seals will follow”, the Chancellery indicated to AFP on Friday.

The announcement of her reinstatement within the judiciary had caused excitement within the Union Syndicale des Magistrates, the main union in the sector, given the person concerned's judicial calendar. Rachida Dati must appear from September 16 to 28 before the Paris Criminal Court, notably for corruption and passive influence peddling.

She is accused of an alleged corruption pact and of illegally lobbying in the European Parliament, where she served as an elected official from 2009 to 2019, on behalf of Renault and its then boss Carlos Ghosn, now on the run in Lebanon and also referred to court.

Between 2009 and 2013, Rachida Dati received 900,000 euros under a flat-rate lawyer remuneration agreement. The defendant maintains that she only did completely legal work as a lawyer. She faces ten years of imprisonment and five years of ineligibility.

Reactions on the left

The announcement of his reinstatement also caused a reaction on the left on Saturday. “The corruption of the system, yet another case: Rachida Dati will have a trial for corruption this fall… and yet, Gérald Darmanin is reinstating her in the judiciary. It's not individual here, not accidental. But structural. Just like Sarkozy condemned for crime against the Nation and yet received at the Elysée by Emmanuel Macron,” MP François Ruffin reacted on X.