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Summoned as part of the judicial investigation opened in July 2020 after complaints from associations of victims of the pandemic, the former Prime Minister was placed under the status of assisted witness on October 18.
According to information from World, the former Prime Minister, Edouard Philippe was to be summoned on October 24 before the investigating committee of the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR). He was finally heard on Tuesday, October 18, discreetly, away from the cameras. Risking possible indictment in the investigation into the management of Covid-19 for “endangering the lives of others” and “voluntary abstention from fighting a disaster” he was placed by the magistrates under the more favorable status of “assisted witness”.
In an interview given to Parisianon October 9, the former Prime Minister said “vigorously contest the charges against him”.
Judicial information on the responsibilities of the executive
The CJR, in fact, opened a judicial investigation in July 2020 after the filing of complaints from associations of victims of Covid-19. They considered that the government had badly anticipated the spread of the virus, then reacted too late to stop it during the first wave.
Édouard Philippe was therefore questioned by the judges of the court’s investigative committee, a trio of magistrates who are trying to determine whether members of the executive may have been accountable for the results of the Covid-19 epidemic. In this same case, the former Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn was indicted in September 2021 for “endangering the lives of others”.