The Minister of Culture Rachida Dati once again asks the Paris Court of Appeal on Tuesday to drop the proceedings against her since 2021 in the case on contracts entered into with a subsidiary of Renault-Nissan, when Carlos Ghosn in was the CEO.
The investigating chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal is seized of two requests from Rachida Dati, indicated a judicial Source.
One to note the statute of limitations on the alleged facts, the second to grant Rachida Dati the more favorable status of assisted witness, according to this Source.
The minister’s lawyers, Olivier Baratelli and Olivier Pardi, told AFP that only the statute of limitations of the facts would be examined.
“Everything has been prescribed, strictly prescribed, for years”they estimate.
Both counsels argue “the discovery of new, fundamental elements attesting that more than forty managers of Renault, Nissan and the Renault-Nissan alliance (embodied by the Dutch subsidiary RNBV, Editor’s note), were clearly informed of the mission of lawyer for Rachida Dati, her reality, her services and the amount of fees”.
The limitation period – three years at the time – would therefore begin at the time of signing the agreement between RNBV and Ms. Dati in 2009 and not in 2019 with the complaint of a Renault shareholder.
“Moreover, those responsible for the European Parliament affirm, in a consistent manner, that they have never been asked for any intervention for the benefit of the alliance and even less of Renault,” add Messrs Pardo and Baratelli.
The lawyers had already appealed to the investigating chamber to have the facts declared time-barred, in vain.
The former Minister of Justice and former LR mayor of the 7th arrondissement of Paris has been indicted since July 2021 for “corruption and passive influence peddling by a person invested with a public elective mandate”.
The suspicions relate to the 900,000 euros that RNBV paid to her between 2010 and 2012, while she was a lawyer and European MP (2009-2019).
The investigations sought to determine whether the fee agreement could have been used to mask lobbying activity in the European Parliament prohibited to any elected official.
Carlos Ghosn has been the subject of an international arrest warrant in this case since April 2023: the former big boss did not appear at a summons with a view to possible indictment for corruption in May 2022.
Both Dati and Ghosn deny any irregularity.
The investigations, which began in July 2019, have been completed since September 2023.
The National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) must soon take its requisitions, then the investigating judge will order or not a trial before the Paris criminal court.
