A Paris investigating judge has ruled that a criminal trial should be held against French Minister of Culture Rachida Dati and a former top executive of Renault-Nissan, Carlos Ghosn. They are suspected of corruption and abuse of power during the period when they both worked for the car company.
The 59-year-old Dati is currently one of the leading figures in Prime Minister François Bayrou’s government. She hopes to be elected mayor of Paris next March. She has said for years that she is innocent.
Dati has unsuccessfully filed cases against the Public Prosecutor’s Office over what she says are false accusations. A date for the start of the trial will be determined on September 29.
The minister is said to have been paid 900,000 euros between 2010 and 2012 as a consultant to a Dutch part of the Renault-Nissan company. According to prosecutors, she did not actually work as a consultant at all, because she was a Member of the European Parliament from 2009 to 2019. She may have lobbied for Renault-Nissan during those years.
Ghosn fled to Lebanon in 2019, where he has been in hiding ever since. He was accused of fraud at Nissan in Japan. Ghosn has French, Brazilian and Lebanese nationalities. France issued an international arrest warrant for Ghosn in 2022, but has no extradition treaty with Lebanon.