Covid-19: The Court of Justice of the Republic requests a dismissal of proceedings against Edouard Philippe, Olivier Véran and Agnès Buzyn

A dismissal of charges was requested on Tuesday against three former members of the government – ​​Edouard Philippe, Olivier Véran and Agnès Buzyn – in the investigation conducted by the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR) into the management of the health crisis linked to Covid-19, announced the Attorney General, Rémy Heitz, on Wednesday, May 21.

In this judicial investigation into endangering the lives of others and willfully failing to combat a disaster, former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, former Health Minister Agnès Buzyn, and her successor, Olivier Véran, have been placed under the status of assisted witness. With these requisitions, the prospect of a trial is receding for these political leaders, even if it is now up to the CJR's investigating commission to decide.

"The investigations establish that numerous initiatives were taken by the government to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, preventing the offence of willful abstention from combating a disaster from being established against Edouard Philippe and Olivier Véran," explained Rémy Heitz in a press release.

For her part, Agnès Buzyn had been harshly criticized for leaving her position at the start of the health crisis to become a candidate for mayor of Paris.

It is ultimately this chronology that seems to exonerate her: the public prosecutor noted that she left her post on February 16, 2020, "a date on which no disaster within the meaning of the penal code had yet been characterized on the national territory since the first death of a patient contaminated by Covid-19 in France occurred on February 25, 2020."

Agnès Buzyn had also been charged with endangering the lives of others for a time. However, she had this charge overturned in January 2023 before the Court of Cassation .

The public prosecutor's office considered that he could not be accused of "any violation of a particular obligation of prudence or security imposed by law or regulation" .

The judicial investigation opened in July 2020 was conducted by the CJR, the only court empowered to prosecute and try members of the government—prime ministers, ministers, and secretaries of state—for crimes and offenses committed in the exercise of their functions. It arose from several complaints from doctors and associations denouncing, from the start of the lockdown in March 2020, the lack of protective equipment for healthcare workers and the public, as well as the errors regarding the necessity or otherwise of wearing masks.