Former French minister Rachida Dati on trial for corruption in favor of Renault-Nissan

Former French minister Rachida Dati goes on trial from Wednesday with former CEO Carlos Ghosn in a high-profile trial for corruption and influence peddling when she sat in the European Parliament, a few months after her defeat in the Paris mayoral election.

The fiery 60-year-old politician is suspected of having entered into a corruption pact and illegally lobbied in the European Parliament, of which she was an elected member, on behalf of Renault-Nissan between October 2009 and February 2013.

Did she receive 900,000 euros to support the interests of the builder? That is the question the Paris criminal court must decide.

The former Keeper of the Seals under Nicolas Sarkozy and ex-Minister of Culture under Emmanuel Macron - she left the government in February - firmly denies these accusations and insists that she only carried out the work of a lawyer, legally compatible with her role as an elected official.

"The defense will demonstrate that Rachida Dati worked exclusively as a lawyer for RNBV (the Dutch company used to manage the Renault-Nissan alliance, editor's note) and that the unfounded accusations of alleged influence peddling in the European Parliament are an artificial intellectual construct of the prosecution," declare her lawyers Olivier Pardo, Olivier Baratelli and Antoine Beauquier.

Although the political stakes are lower since her severe defeat in the Paris municipal elections against the socialist Emmanuel Grégoire, Rachida Dati is nevertheless putting her mandate as mayor of the very posh 7th arrondissement of Paris on the line before her judges: she faces five years of ineligibility.

The National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) believes that the lawyer's fee agreement of October 28, 2009, signed between Rachida Dati and Carlos Ghosn, with a fixed annual remuneration of 300,000 euros excluding tax for the former minister, was used to disguise work defending the interests of the Renault group within the European Parliament, which her mandate as a Member of the European Parliament prohibited.

This controversial contract fell into the hands of the French justice system in the summer of 2019 during a search of Renault's headquarters, following the arrest in late 2018 in Japan in another case of Carlos Ghosn, which led to the downfall of the all-powerful Franco-Lebanese-Brazilian boss.

Now a refugee in Lebanon after his dramatic escape from Japan, Carlos Ghosn, 72, who has reinvented himself as an internet business influencer, is not expected to appear at his trial.

He contests the form and timing of his summons. Denying any intention to "delay this trial," Carlos Ghosn stated in a letter sent at the end of August that he was ready to appear via videoconference from Beirut to "explain himself regarding facts he disputes."

The prosecution doubts the reality of the legal work carried out by Rachida Dati, who only became a lawyer four months after signing the contract with RNBV, and is surprised by the "singularly limited" traces that the justice system was able to find of it in view of the duration of the service and its remuneration.

Rachida Dati maintains that it was Carlos Ghosn's wish not to keep the notes addressed to him and says she did intervene for Renault as a lawyer in cases related to Morocco, Algeria, Turkey or Iran.

His defense plans to call several witnesses to the hearing who, according to them, attest to his actual work.

The prosecution is holding charges against Rachida Dati for three parliamentary questions related to the automotive sector and for taking positions favorable to the manufacturer, summarized in a note sent by Rachida Dati to Carlos Ghosn in February 2013 at the end of his contract - a simple legal check, according to her.

In this case, Rachida Dati faces ten years imprisonment for passive corruption and a fine of 450,000 euros for receiving stolen goods.

Just before this trial, she requested her reinstatement—as a matter of right—to the judiciary, where she has not served for over twenty years. This request will be examined by the High Council of the Judiciary after the scheduled trial.