Failing to fall, the dominoes begin to shake. After the former Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn, it is the turn of the former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe to be summoned before the Court of Justice of the Republic with a view to a possible indictment within the framework of the investigation into the management of the Covid-19 epidemic. And Agnès Buzyn’s successor to Health, Olivier Véran, is also covered by this instruction.
The mayor of Le Havre and president of Horizons, a party close to the presidential majority, will be heard by the three magistrates of the CJR’s investigation commission on the offenses of endangering the lives of others and voluntary abstention from fighting a disaster, confirmed the general prosecutor’s office at the Court of Cassation. “I vigorously dispute the charges against me”, assured the former Prime Minister (May 2017-July 2020) on Sunday in an interview with Le Parisien.
Judicial information open from summer 2020
At the end of his hearing, he may be charged or placed under the more favorable status of assisted witness if he manages to convince the judges that there are not enough serious or concordant indications that can be held against him. him. For her part, Agnès Buzyn was indicted on September 10, 2021 for endangering the lives of others and placed under the status of assisted witness for voluntary failure to fight a disaster.
The investigations had been launched after several complaints denouncing in particular the lack of protective equipment for caregivers and the population or the errors on the need or not to wear masks. Since then, other complaints have been attached to the judicial investigation opened in July 2020. In this case, several searches were carried out in October 2020, in particular at the homes and offices of Olivier Véran, Edouard Philippe, Agnès Buzyn and former government member Sibeth Ndiaye. To date, according to figures from Public Health France, the Covid-19 epidemic has caused 155,000 deaths in France.