Prime Minister Edouard Philippe and former Health Minister Agnès Buzyn are accused by three doctors of having "refrained" from taking timely measures to stem the epidemic of coronavirus. The three doctors filed a complaint.

Three doctors, representatives of a group of carers, filed a complaint Thursday against Prime Minister Edouard Philippe and the former Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn, accusing them of having "refrained" from taking measures in time to stem the Covid-19 epidemic, their lawyer said.

This complaint was sent today to the requests commission of the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR), the only body empowered in France to judge acts committed by members of the government in the exercise of their functions, according to Maître Fabrice Di Vizio.

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The three complainants - Philippe Naccache, Emmanuel Sarrazin and Ludovic Toro, all three doctors - seized the CJR on behalf of the recently created collective C19. They believe that Mr. Philippe and Mrs. Buzyn "were aware of the danger and had the means of action, which they nevertheless chose not to exercise".

Two years imprisonment and a fine of 30,000 euros

They are based in particular on statements by Agnes Buzyn to the World, who affirmed, after the first round of municipal elections, having alerted the Prime Minister in January about the seriousness of the coronavirus epidemic and having warned him that "the presumably elections could not be held. "

Consequently, the complainants accuse Edouard Philippe and Agnès Buzyn, a doctor by profession, of having "voluntarily refrained from taking or provoking measures allowing (...) to combat a disaster likely to create a danger for the safety of people ", in this case the coronavirus epidemic, which is punishable by two years' imprisonment and a fine of 30,000 euros.

Starting on March 13, the government took several measures, most notably the general confinement of the population, they point out. If these had been taken before, this "would undoubtedly have made it possible to curb the epidemic by reducing the number of people infected, and therefore of people likely to infect others", they judge, regretting in particular that in the Oise, one of the homes of Covid-19 in France, "no particular measure, other than the closure of schools", has been put in place.

>> READ - All the information on the coronavirus epidemic

Edouard Philippe anticipates criticism

Tuesday evening, Edouard Philippe tried to evacuate the controversy born from the words of Madame Buzyn. "If we had not taken this health event seriously, I would not have organized a meeting in January" and "made heavy decisions", he declared on France 2.

"A few months ago, there were people who said 'you are doing too much' or 'you are not doing enough'. In a few months, some will say: 'it should have been done differently'. These controversies, I I know them, I assume them, "he added.

Wednesday, the Minister of Public Accounts Gérald Darmanin for his part assured that the State did not know in February that the epidemic of coronavirus was going to lead France to know the current situation, ensuring that no decision taken by the State n had been "contrary to the choices of scientists".