INFO FRANCEINFO. Covid-19: Edouard Philippe placed by the CJR under the status of assisted witness for his management of the epidemic – franceinfo

Edouard Philippe was placed under the status of witness assisted by the Court of Justice of the Republic which is investigating responsibilities in the management of the Covid-19 epidemic, learned franceinfo from sources close to the file, Saturday October 22. With this intermediate status, the former Prime Minister escapes an indictment. He is placed under the status of assisted witness for “endangering the lives of others” and “voluntary abstention from fighting a disaster”. Edouard Philippe was heard on Tuesday October 18, almost a week ahead of the initial date of summons, Monday October 24, revealed at the time by the newspaper Le Monde. The former Prime Minister has obviously been able to convince the three magistrates of the CJR’s investigation commission not to put him on trial. In an interview with Le Parisien on October 8, he vigorously contested the charges against him. Contacted by franceinfo, neither Édouard Philippe, nor his entourage, nor his lawyer Emmanuel Marsigny wished to comment. The judges of the CJR are trying to find out if members of the government may have had some responsibility in the management of the coronavirus and its spread, in particular during the first wave, and therefore in the assessment of the epidemic which made this day more than 150,000 deaths in France. The executive is sometimes criticized in particular for the lack of masks, the delay before activating the interministerial crisis center or even the maintenance of the municipal elections in May 2020. In this judicial investigation opened in July 2020, the former Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn was indicted for endangering the lives of others on September 10, 2021, and placed under the status of assisted witness for voluntary failure to fight a disaster. At the beginning of the health crisis, she had assured that “the risks of spreading the coronavirus in the population (were) very low”. She then claimed that the mask was “totally useless” for non-sick people. His successor at the Ministry of Health Olivier Véran is also targeted by this instruction on the government’s management of the Covid-19 epidemic led by the CJR, the only body authorized to prosecute and judge members of the government for crimes or offenses committed in the exercise of their functions. At this stage, Olivier Véran has not been heard by the CJR.