William Molinié with AFP
modified to
7:35 p.m., January 20, 2023
The former Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn saw her indictment canceled by the Court of Cassation for endangering the lives of others in the investigation into the management of the Covid-19 epidemic by the government.
The 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, has announced Friday the highest French court. “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”, explains the Court of Cassation in a press release, specifying that “this obligation must be objective, immediately perceptible and clearly applicable”.
An indictment contested by the minister
“However, none of the texts to which the investigating committee” of the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR) referred to indict in September 2021 “the former Minister of Health does not provide for a particular obligation to caution or security”, is it added. Agnès Buzyn’s lawyer, Me 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.
Ms. 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 everyone did not care”, according to remarks reported last October by the daily Le Monde which had obtained “a diary written by the ex-minister” from the end of 2019 to the summer of 2021.
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 need or not to wear masks.