The former minister had appealed to the Court of Cassation after the decision of the Court of Justice of the Republic, which judges the members of the government in the exercise of their functions.
The Court of Cassation on Friday canceled the indictment of the former Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn for endangering others in the management of the Covid-19 health crisis.
“None of the texts to which the investigating committee referred” of the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR) to indict “the former Minister of Health does not foresee any particular obligation of prudence or security”, specified the Court in a press release.
The CJR is the exceptional French jurisdiction competent to judge crimes or misdemeanors committed by members of the government in the exercise of their functions.
Appeal in cassation
Agnès Buzyn had for the first time legally challenged this indictment pronounced in September 2021. But, particularity of the CJR: when one appeals against an indictment, one finds oneself before the same investigating judges who pronounced this decision. The latter had therefore maintained their reasoning on April 15.
As the press release from the Court of Cassation specifies, the former minister then appealed “against this decision of the investigating committee.” She found herself this time before other magistrates, who had a different reading of the file and canceled the indictment.
No text violation
This decision was reasoned because the offense of endangering the life of others, to be constituted, must be based on the violation of a text of obligation of protection. For example, if you run a red light, you do not respect the text of the Highway Code, so you are committing the offense of endangering others.
In this case, the Court of Cassation considers that there is no text providing for a Minister of Health a particular obligation in the event of an epidemic. According to these magistrates, the foundations of this indictment do not hold.
The cancellation of this indictment has “the effect of automatically attributing to the former minister the status of ‘assisted witness’: she remains implicated, but she is no longer directly accused of an offence”, is- He underlines. As it stands, she cannot be judged: she would have to be indicted for another offense to be.
