Eric Dupond-Moretti’s appeal to quash his indictment rejected by the CJR

Eric Dupond-Moretti’s appeal to cancel his indictment for illegal taking of interest was rejected, franceinfo learned on Wednesday from a judicial source, confirming information from BFMTV. All the requests formulated by the lawyers, the requests for annulment of certain procedural acts as well as the indictment of the Minister of Justice, were rejected by the Court of Justice of the Republic. “The judicial investigation continues”, specifies this legal source to franceinfo.

The Keeper of the Seals is suspected of having taken advantage of his duties as Minister of Justice to intervene in cases in which he was previously a lawyer. He was indicted on July 16 by the Court of Justice of the Republic, without judicial review after the opening of an investigation in January 2021. This indictment is a first for a Minister of Justice.

The lawyers of Eric Dupond-Moretti had filed on September 20 a request for nullity of his indictment for “illegal taking of interests” with the CJR, as they had announced in July. A few days after his indictment, Eric Dupond-Moretti had declared that “nothing will start [sa] determination” to remain Minister of Justice and said to himself “serene”.

The CJR opened a judicial investigation in January after complaints from magistrates’ unions and the Anticor association, which accuse it in particular of having launched administrative proceedings a year ago against three magistrates of the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office involved in the case of the “fadettes”, because they participated in a preliminary investigation aimed at identifying the “mole” who would have informed Nicolas Sarkozy and his lawyer Thierry Herzog of the fact that they were tapped.

The Court of Justice of the Republic is the only institution empowered to try ministers for offenses committed in the course of their duties.