Corruption with Ghosn: Rachida Dati claims she worked as a lawyer before court
Rachida Dati appeared in Paris charged with corruption and influence peddling, accused of receiving 900,000 euros from Renault during her tenure as an MEP.
Dati-Ghosn trial: the mayor of the 7th arrondissement alone in the dock
According to TF1 Info, Rachida Dati appeared on Thursday 17 September before the Paris criminal court to defend the reality of her legal services provided to a Renault-Nissan subsidiary. The former Culture Minister, remunerated at 900,000 euros in legal fees between 2010 and 2012, stated at the bar: "Carlos Ghosn signed a lawyer contract, I signed a lawyer contract and I worked as a lawyer."
The trial, ordered by two investigating judges for corruption and influence peddling, began on Wednesday in Paris. Carlos Ghosn, former chief executive of Renault, is absent from the proceedings. Sheltering in Lebanon, he is evading arrest warrants issued against him by Japan and France. The mayor of the 7th arrondissement of Paris thus finds herself alone in the dock.
The National Financial Prosecutor's Office contends that the legal fee agreement signed on 28 October 2009 between Carlos Ghosn and Rachida Dati — providing for an annual fixed fee of 300,000 euros excluding tax — was intended to conceal lobbying work in favour of the Renault group within the European Parliament, an activity formally incompatible with her role as an MEP.
At the bar, the defendant's demeanour contrasted with her image as a combative politician: she spoke quickly and in a low voice when recounting her initial contacts with the former Renault chief executive. She retraced the context of their agreement: "When I give birth in 2009, I announce to the President of the Republic that I wish to leave political life and therefore have an activity that no longer depends at all on politics. (…) This was followed by considerable tensions."
Rachida Dati explained that she had informed Carlos Ghosn of her future work as a lawyer. "He called me back saying he was interested with some urgency regarding Morocco," she specified. The court president, Claire Saas, quickly challenged her on the weakness of material evidence of this activity: "According to the prosecution, the proceedings contain only scattered traces of Ms Dati's work as a lawyer." The magistrate added that most of these traces "are linked to the European Parliament".
The prosecution relies on three parliamentary questions related to the automotive sector as well as statements favouring Renault, summarised in a memo sent to Carlos Ghosn in February 2013, following the end of the contract. Rachida Dati described these interventions as "simple legal monitoring", adding that she did not go to the European Parliament "that much" and that she had worked for Renault-Nissan in Morocco and Algeria.
The former minister also wanted to emphasise the formal distance between herself and Ghosn: "I had no direct contact with Carlos Ghosn, I never met him one-to-one," she declared, specifying that third parties were always present during their meetings.
In this trial, Rachida Dati faces ten years imprisonment for passive corruption, a fine of 450,000 euros, and risks five years of ineligibility — a sentence that would end her mandate as mayor of the 7th arrondissement of Paris.
Source: TF1 Info