Probe into French government's handling of Covid ends with no indictments

RFI

30 December 2024 at 1:51 pm·1-min read

Former French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe (L), holds a meeting about the emergency of the Covid-19 virus in France 8 February 2020. An investigation into him and former health ministers Agnes Buzyn and Olivier Veran for allegedly mis-managing the pandemic has been dropped, with no indictments.

The judicial inquiry into the French government's handling of the Covid-19 crisis is over, with no indictments for former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe or health ministers Agnes Buzyn and Olivier Veran.

The Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR) opened an investigation in July 2020, a few months into the pandemic, after receiving complaints about a lack of protective gear for healthcare workers and unclear government instructions about the spread of the virus.

“A notice of the end of the inquiry was issued on 28 November,” Remy Heitz, prosecutor at the Court of cassation, who acts as the public prosecutor for the CJR, told the AFP news agency Monday, confirming a report by Franceinfo.

“Furthermore, nobody to date has been indicted.”

The CJR, the only court that can investigate acts committed by members of the government while they were in office, received an increase in complaints during the Covid pandemic, which caused more than 116,000 deaths in France in 2020 and 2021.

The Court of cassation dismissed the charges in 2023, saying there was no legal provision to hold her directly responsible.

(with AFP)

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