the opening of a trial ordered against Minister Éric Dupond-Moretti

Monday, October 3, the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR) orders a trial against Éric Dupond-Moretti, Minister of Justice. “There is an instrumentalization of the Court of Justice of the Republic and of criminal law in order to harm the political action of the current Minister of Justice”, assures Me Rémi Lorrain, lawyer for Éric Dupond-Moretti. According to the CJR, the Minister of Justice would have taken advantage of his position to settle accounts with former magistrates whom he had rubbed shoulders with when he was a lawyer.

Two investigations ordered by the Keeper of the Seals are in question. One concerns magistrates from the national financial prosecutor’s office who had gone through the lawyer’s telephone bills in a corruption case. The other was against an examining magistrate from Monaco. Éric Dupond-Moretti knew he would go to court. “This is completely unprecedented, no serving Minister of Justice has ever been sent back to stand trial in the history of the Republic”indicates Christophe Clerc, lawyer at the Court, spokesman for the Union of the unions of the magistrature and the Union of the magistrates.