A judicial investigation will be opened into an alleged conflict of interest on the part of justice minister Éric Dupond-Moretti, the prosecutor attached to France’s highest civil court said on Friday, reports Reuters.
Dupond-Moretti’s office declined to comment.
Dupond-Moretti was a celebrity lawyer and household name before he was named minister by President Emmanuel Macron in July with a brief to reform the justice system.
However, the biggest magistrates’ unions said he was biased against some judges after decades of work as a lawyer and unfit to preside over a revamp of the judiciary.
Weeks before his ministerial appointment, Dupond-Moretti alleged prosecutors at the financial crimes unit (PNF) had abused their powers by accessing his phone records, and those of other lawyers, as part of an investigation into alleged corruption by former President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Read more of this report from Reuters.
See Mediapart's story on the background to this here.