JUSTICE: Four judicial inquiries, opened following a preliminary investigation started on June 8th, so far include 253 complaints
The Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR), the only body empowered to judge members of the executive for the exercise of their function, has work. Insufficient stocks of masks, supply problem, underestimated epidemic risk … several investigations have been opened since the start of the health crisis after complaints about the management of the coronavirus epidemic by the public authorities.
The CJR thus opened on July 7 a judicial investigation for “abstaining from fighting a claim”. Of the 147 complaints sent to the Court’s requests committee on December 15, only 14 against the Minister of Health Olivier Véran, his predecessor Agnès Buzyn and former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe were deemed admissible.
“To seize the CJR, it is to say that one will not ask account only to the lamp operators, but also to the persons in charge of the executive”, explains Me Bertrand Mertz, who represents a steelmaker of 40 years, who must be heard at the beginning February by the investigative committee of the CJR. This commission made up of three magistrates from the Court of Cassation, who acts as an examining magistrate, has been hearing the plaintiffs since September, including the group of doctors C19.
Searches of ministers
“The magistrates have taken over the entire history of the masks and seek to understand how the management was organized for other epidemics such as influenza and H1N1”, relates the lawyer of the collective, Me Fabrice Di Vizio. In mid-October, searches were carried out in the homes or offices of Olivier Véran, Edouard Philippe and Agnès Buzyn. Others were carried out the same day with the former government spokesperson, Sibeth Ndiaye, the Director-General of Health, Jérôme Salomon, and the Director of Public Health France, Geneviève Chêne. The ministers have not yet been heard.
In total, 365 complaints, targeting administration officials, have been filed since March 24 at the public health pole of the Paris court. Five investigating judges are seized, in pairs, of four judicial inquiries opened on November 10 against X for “voluntary abstention from fighting a disaster”, “endangering the life of others” or “homicides and involuntary injuries” . These four judicial inquiries, opened following a preliminary investigation started on June 8, currently include 253 complaints.
