The former Minister of Health had been indicted by the Court of Justice for endangering others during the management of Covid-19.
SourceAFP
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Lhe Court of Cassation has canceled the indictment of the former Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn for endangering the lives of others in the investigation into the management of the Covid-19 epidemic by the government, a announced the highest French court on Friday. “The offense of endangering others can only be blamed on a person if a law or regulation imposes on him a particular obligation of prudence or security”, explains the Court of Cassation 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” of the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR) to examine in September 2021 “the former Minister of Health does not provide for a particular obligation to caution or safety,” it added. Agnès Buzyn’s lawyer, Mr.e Éric Dezeuze, did not wish to react. Minister of Health between May 2017 and February 2020, Ms. Buzyn had challenged her indictment, as well as the content of an expertise and the regularity of her hearings. Her request having been rejected by the investigating committee, she appealed in the spring of 2022. The former minister was also placed under the more favorable status of assisted witness for voluntary failure to fight a disaster.
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“The most alert minister”
Agnès Buzyn has always defended herself for not 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. But no one didn’t care”, according to comments reported last October by the daily The world who had obtained “a diary written by the ex-minister” from the end of 2019 to the summer of 2021.
READ ALSOCovid-19: Did Agnès Buzyn endanger the lives of others?
Former Prime Minister Édouard 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. The magistrates of the CJR have been investigating since July 7, 2020 the government’s management of the crisis after having received several complaints denouncing in particular the lack of protective equipment for caregivers and the population, or even the errors on the necessity or not to wear masks.
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