France's Culture Minister Rachida Dati to stand trial for corruption and lobbying

Rachida Dati, France’s Culture Minister, will face trial on charges of corruption and abuse of authority as a member of the European Parliament, a court source told AFP on Tuesday.

Dati, a high-profile minister who hopes to become mayor of Paris next year, was investigated in 2019 on suspicion of lobbying for the Renault-Nissan auto firm while working at the European Union agency.

Dati, aged 59, denies the allegations. She did not return an AFP request for comment.

“We will appeal this decision today,” Dati’s lawyers, Olivier Baratelli and Olivier Pardo, told AFP.

Dati, a daughter of working-class North African immigrants, was defiant.

“I will lead you to victory. Some people are trying to attack me over my private life, over many aspects that are collateral to my candidacy,” said Dati, who is mayor of the French capital’s 7th district that is home to most French ministries, the country’s parliament and many foreign embassies.

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“I am not afraid of anything or anyone.”

Dati, who served as justice minister under right-wing leader Nicolas Sarkozy from 2007 to 2009, will continue in office, according to a Macron colleague.

“The president has taken note of the decision to refer Rachida Dati to the criminal court. As a referral is not a conviction, she will continue her work,” said the associate, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Dati is suspected of taking 900,000 euros in lawyer’s fees from a Renault-Nissan company in the Netherlands between 2010 and 2012 while not working for them throughout her tenure as an MEP from 2009 to 2019.

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‘Until the end’

Investigations have sought to determine whether she carried out banned lobbying for the carmaker at the European Parliament.

In their order signed on Tuesday, a copy of which was seen by AFP, the investigating magistrates said that Dati’s activities in parliament “amounts to lobbying”, which “appears incompatible with both her mandate and the profession of lawyer.”

Initially placed under the more favourable status of assisted witness – a step before being indicted – in 2019, Dati was charged in 2021.

She has since repeatedly sought to have the charges quashed.

French investigating magistrates also ordered that Carlos Ghosn, the former Renault-Nissan chairman and chief executive, be tried, the judicial source said.

The 71-year-old, who has been living in Lebanon for years after escaping arrest in Japan, has also rejected the charges against him.

A hearing on September 29 will decide on the date of the trial, the source said.

According to another source following the case, the trial could be held after the Paris municipal elections in March next year.

“She will go until the end,” Jean-Pierre Lecoq, mayor of the French capital’s 6th district and one of Dati’s close associates, said on Tuesday.

Ghosn, who headed the Renault-Nissan alliance, was arrested in Japan in November 2018 on suspicion of financial misconduct, before being sacked by Nissan’s board.

He jumped bail the following year and made a dramatic escape from Japan hidden in an audio-equipment box, landing in Beirut, where he remains as an international fugitive.

Japan and France have sought his arrest.

Ghosn’s lawyers did not respond to a request for comment.