It is suspected that the former prime minister did not order protective measures for health personnel and exposed personnel, nor was the Covid-19 outbreak expected despite warnings.
According to the newspaper Le Monde, the first circular of municipal elections must also be held on March 15, 2020 despite the resurgence of infections.
“I strongly contest the fees,” he added Sunday in an interview with Le Parisien.
Philippe is the mayor of the northern city of Le Havre and also president of the political “Horizons”, close to the presidential majority.
It will be heard on October 24 through the 3 magistrates of the CJR investigation commission on the crimes of “endangering the lives of others” and “voluntary failure to combat a disaster”.
This information was shown on Tuesday through the prosecutor’s office at the Court of Cassation, according to French news firm AFP, which added that neither Edouard Philippe nor his entourage were available for comment.
Philippe can be prosecuted if he is placed under the more favorable prestige of an assisted witness, if he manages to convince the judges that at this level there is not enough corroborating evidence against him.
Opened in July 2020, this judicial investigation is carried out through the CJR, the only authority empowered to prosecute and judge members of the government for crimes or misdemeanors committed in the exercise of their functions.
Philippe’s summons comes a year after former Health Minister Agnès Buzyn (May 2017-February 2020) was charged with endangering the lives of others on September 10, 2021.
He placed her under the prestige of assisted witness for “intentional failure to combat a disaster. “
Former fitness minister Olivier Véran, now a government spokesman, is also under investigation, but at this level has been summoned for questioning.
The investigations were initiated after several court cases that specifically denounced the lack of sufficient protective equipment for caregivers and the population, and errors in the lack or use of masks.
“About masks, we were wrong,” Véran admitted in September at the launch of his e-book Beyond The Waves, which he used for his movements in this regard.
In 2021, the CJR won more than 20,000 complaints, all of them similar to the coronavirus and fitness pass.
But 19,685 of them, “standard” court cases written in terms of a paid form put online through lawyer Fabrice Di Vizio, were closed without follow-up.
To date, according to figures from Public Health France, the covid-19 epidemic has killed another 155,000 people in France.