The charges date back to when Rachida Dati was a European MP and allege she accepted lawyer’s fees

French Culture Minister Rachida Dati is to go on trial accused of corruption and abuse of power while she was a European Parliament member. Photo / Mohammed Badra, pool, AFP

France’s Culture Minister Rachida Dati is to go on trial accused of corruption and abuse of power while she was a European Parliament member, a judicial source told AFP.

Dati, a high-profile minister who holds ambitions to become Paris mayor next year, was placed under investigation in 2019 on suspicion she lobbied for the Renault-Nissan car group while at the European Union institution.

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

Ghosn, 71, who has been living in Lebanon for years after escaping arrest in Japan, has rejected the charges against him.

Dati, 59, also denies the allegations, and lashed out at some of the investigating magistrates on her case, accusing them of “trampling” on her rights.

“I condemn magistrates who refuse to do their job according to the code of procedure,” she told news channel LCI, denouncing what she called a case “marred by incidents”.

“I will not give up, on anything,” added Dati, who is mayor of the French capital’s seventh district, home to most French ministries, the country’s parliament and many foreign embassies.

Dati is accused of accepting €900,000 ($1.7 million) in lawyer’s fees between 2010 and 2012 from a Netherlands-based subsidiary of Renault-Nissan, but not working for them, while she was an MEP from 2009 to 2019.

Her lawyers told AFP they would appeal the decision to place her on trial.

Dati, a daughter of working-class North African immigrants, has accused enemies of “trying to attack me over my private life”.

A powerful political player who was justice minister under right-wing leader Nicolas Sarkozy from 2007 to 2009, Dati will remain in the Government, said an associate of President Emmanuel Macron.

“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, speaking on condition of anonymity.

‘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 today, 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.

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

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.

-Agence France-Presse