(AFP) — France’s Culture Minister Rachida Dati is to go on trial accused of corruption and abuse of power while she was a member of European Parliament, a judicial source told AFP Tuesday.
Dati, a 59-year-old who holds ambitions to become Paris mayor next year, was charged in 2019 on suspicions she lobbied for the Renault-Nissan carmaking group while at the European Union institution. She denies the allegations.
Dati is accused of accepting 900,000 euros ($1.06 million at current rates) in lawyer’s fees between 2010 and 2012 from a Netherlands-based subsidiary of Renault-Nissan, but not really working for them, while she was an MEP from 2009 to 2019.
Investigations have sought to determine whether she was in fact lobbying in the European Parliament for the carmaker, an activity that is forbidden.
French investigating magistrates also ordered that Carlos Ghosn, the ex-tycoon of Renault-Nissan, 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, which will be held in March next year.
Dati, a daughter of working-class North African immigrants, has repeatedly sought without success to have the charges against her quashed.
Ghosn, the former chairman and chief executive of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, was arrested in Japan in November 2018 on suspicion of financial misconduct, before being sacked by Nissan’s board in a unanimous decision.
He jumped bail late 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.
Both Japan and France have sought his arrest.
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