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, reports The New Zealand Herald.
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”.
Read more of this AFP report published by The New Zealand Herald.