Rachida Dati brought before Paris court over corruption charges

Former French minister Rachida Dati was escorted before a Paris court today to face corruption-related charges tied to her dealings with the Renault–Nissan group.

Prosecutors say Dati, 60, accepted €900,000 (£770,000) in legal fees from a Netherlands-based subsidiary of Renault–Nissan while she was a member of the European Parliament, and that the payments were in fact remuneration for illicit lobbying. Her defence team rejects the accusation, saying she worked "exclusively" as a lawyer for the subsidiary. The court must now determine the purpose of the sums paid.

Allegations, evidence and co-defendant

French investigators opened a probe into Dati in 2019 on suspicion that she lobbied illegally for Renault–Nissan between October 2009 and February 2013, a period when she served as an MEP. Prosecutors say a 2009 legal-services contract, under which Dati allegedly received an annual fee of €300,000, was used to conceal lobbying. That contract was seized in 2019 during a search of Renault's headquarters following the arrest of Carlos Ghosn in Japan.

Dati is being tried alongside Carlos Ghosn, the former head of the Renault–Nissan alliance, who will be tried in absentia. Ghosn, 72, was detained in Japan in November 2018 on separate allegations of financial misconduct and later fled to Lebanon; he denies wrongdoing in both the Japanese case and the matter involving Dati.

The former minister, who serves as mayor of Paris’s 7th arrondissement and is one of the best-known figures on the French right, was the first woman of North African and Muslim background to hold a senior government post when she was appointed justice minister by Nicolas Sarkozy. She later returned to government as culture minister under President Emmanuel Macron and ran earlier this year for mayor of Paris, losing to the Socialist Emmanuel Grégoire.

If convicted, Dati faces up to ten years in prison and a fine of up to €450,000, as well as a possible five-year ban from holding public office.

Her lawyers said the accusations were without foundation: "The unfounded accusations of trading in influence in the European Parliament arise from an artificial intellectual construction devised by the prosecution." Separately, Dati also faces an inquiry over almost €300,000 in undeclared payments from the energy group GDF Suez from her time as an MEP, and prosecutors last year said they were investigating claims she failed to declare jewellery and watches worth €420,000 when she took ministerial office. She denies all wrongdoing.

Photo: EPA/OLIVIER FITOUSSI ISRAEL OUT