To date, no minister or ex-minister is therefore likely to be sent to trial.

At the end of her hearing before the investigating committee of the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR) on September 10, 2021, Ms. Buzyn had been indicted for endangering the lives of others and placed under the more favorable status of assisted witness for voluntary failure to fight a claim.

Minister of Health between May 2017 and February 2020, Agnès Buzyn had challenged these lawsuits, as well as the content of an expertise and the regularity of her hearings.

Her request having been rejected by the investigating committee, Ms. Buzyn appealed in the spring of 2022.

"The offense of endangering others can only be charged against a person if a law or regulation imposes a particular obligation of prudence or security on him", explained the Court of Cassation on Friday in a press release, specifying that " this obligation must be objective, immediately perceptible and clearly applicable".

“However, none of the texts to which the investigating committee referred to indict the former Minister of Health provides for any particular obligation of prudence or security”, it is added.

Only continued

Her indictment is therefore canceled and, as provided by law, Ms. Buzyn is now placed under the status of assisted witness for this offence.

"As it stands, the former minister cannot be sent back to the CJR for trial," said the Court of Cassation.

Ms. Buzyn was the only member of the government indicted as part of the judicial investigation conducted since July 2020 by the CJR, the only one authorized to prosecute and judge members of the government for crimes or offenses committed in the exercise of their functions. .

His lawyer Eric Dezeuze did not wish to react and Ms. Buzyn could not be reached immediately.

The former minister has always denied having acted when the coronavirus epidemic appeared in China and gradually spread to Europe.

“Not only had I seen but warned. I was, by far in Europe, the most alert minister. a diary written by the ex-minister" from the end of 2019 to the summer of 2021.

The CJR launched investigations after several complaints denouncing in particular the lack of protective equipment for caregivers and the population, or even the errors on the need or not to wear masks.

Since then, other complaints have been added to this judicial information.

Not "of a criminal nature"

Searches were carried out in October 2020, in particular at the homes and offices of Edouard Philippe, Agnès Buzyn, Olivier Véran, his successor at the Ministry of Health, and former government member Sibeth Ndiaye.

Former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe was placed under the status of assisted witness for endangering the lives of others and voluntary abstention from fighting a disaster, following a hearing at the CJR in October 2022.

"Neither for Agnès Buzyn, nor for Olivier Véran, nor for me, nor for any of the collaborators who worked with us, there are no criminal offenses", had estimated the former head of government on France 2 beginning of November.

"On the masks, we were wrong, neither more nor less", admitted in September Mr. Véran at the release of his book "Beyond the waves" (Robert Laffont editions).

In its press release, the Court of Cassation added that "the hearings of the members of the government which were carried out by one or two members of the commission of instruction", composed of three magistrates, are canceled, without specifying the persons concerned.

On the other hand, the Court rejected Ms. Buzyn's other requests relating to hearings and an expert report.

To date, according to figures from Public Health France, the Covid-19 epidemic has caused 163,700 deaths in France.

© 2023 AFP