She was the only member of the government indicted as part of the judicial investigation conducted since July 2020 by the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR) on the management of the Covid-19 epidemic by the authorities. The Court of Cassation canceled the indictment for endangering the lives of others of the former Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn, the only member of the government to date prosecuted in this investigation. “As it stands, the former minister cannot be sent back to the CJR for trial,” said the Court of Cassation.
At the end of her hearing before the CJR’s investigating committee on September 10, 2021, Agnès Buzyn had been indicted for endangering the lives of others and placed under the more favorable status of assisted witness for abstention. volunteer to fight a disaster. The CJR is the only authority to prosecute and judge members of the government for crimes or misdemeanors committed in the exercise of their functions.
Minister of Health between May 2017 and February 2020, Agnès Buzyn had challenged these lawsuits, as well as the content of an expertise and the regularity of her hearings. Her request having been rejected by the investigating committee, Agnès Buzyn had appealed in the spring of 2022.
“The offense of endangering others can only be charged against a person if a law or regulation imposes a particular obligation of prudence or security on him”, explained this Friday the Court of Cassation in a press release, specifying that “this obligation must be objective, immediately perceptible and clearly applicable”. “However, none of the texts to which the investigating committee referred to indict the former Minister of Health provides for any particular obligation of prudence or security”, it is added.
Her indictment is therefore canceled and, as provided by law, Agnès Buzyn is now placed under the status of assisted witness for this offense. His lawyer Eric Dezeuze did not wish to react and Agnès Buzyn could not be reached immediately.
Agnès Buzyn was the only member of the government indicted as part of the judicial investigation conducted since July 2020 by the CJR. To date, no minister or ex-minister is therefore likely to be sent to trial.
The former Minister of Health has always defended herself for not having acted when the epidemic of coronavirus appeared in China and gradually spread to Europe. “Not only had I seen but warned. I was, by far in Europe, the most alert minister. But everyone did not care”, according to comments reported by The world who had obtained “a diary written by the ex-minister” from the end of 2019 to the summer of 2021.
The CJR launched investigations after several complaints denouncing in particular the lack of protective equipment for caregivers and the population, or even the errors on the need or not to wear masks. Since then, other complaints have been added to this judicial information.
Searches were carried out in October 2020, in particular at the homes and offices of Edouard Philippe, Agnès Buzyn, Olivier Véran, his successor at the Ministry of Health, and former member of the government Sibeth Ndiaye. Former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe was placed under the status of assisted witness for endangering the lives of others and voluntary abstention from fighting a disaster, following a hearing at the CJR in October 2022.
“Neither for Agnès Buzyn, nor for Olivier Véran, nor for me, nor for any of the collaborators who worked with us, there are no criminal offenses”, had estimated the former head of government on France 2 beginning of November. “On the masks, we were wrong, neither more nor less”, admitted in September 2022 Olivier Véran at the release of his book Beyond the waves (Robert Laffont editions).
In its press release, the Court of Cassation added that “the hearings of the members of the government which were carried out by one or two members of the commission of instruction”, composed of three magistrates, are canceled, without specifying the persons concerned. On the other hand, the Court rejected Agnès Buzyn’s other requests relating to hearings and an expertise.
