Agnes Buzyn, the former Health Minister who resigned in mid-February 2020 at the start of the Covid-19 epidemic, has been summoned to the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR) in Paris on September 10, 2021 with a view to a possible indictment, AFP reports on September 9, 2021. – AFP photo
PARIS (Sept 9): French former health minister Agnes Buzyn could face charges over her handling of the Covid crisis after being summoned to appear in court, judicial sources told AFP today.
Buzyn, who resigned from her post in February last year weeks after the first Covid cases were confirmed in France, will be grilled on Friday over her role in the widely criticised initial response to the pandemic.
The hearing at a court specialising in ministerial misconduct is part of an investigation launched in July 2020 into the government’s handling of the health emergency.
The top prosecutor for the court said on Wednesday that it had received a total of 14,500 complaints — from individuals, doctors, associations and even prisoners — over the government’s handling of the pandemic.
Many of them target the government’s failure to supply protective equipment in the early stages of the crisis and alleged dithering before imposing lockdown measures.
Buzyn said in January last year that the “risk of a spread of the coronavirus among the population is very small”.
A month later, as she left the ministry to launch a failed bid to become Paris mayor, she claimed that “the tsunami has yet to come”, in an apparent contradiction of her earlier statement.
Buzyn later told a parliamentary investigation that she had alerted the offices of both President Emmanuel Macron and then prime minister Edouard Philippe to the potential “dangers” of Covid-19 as early as January.
Prosecutors have been investigating Buzyn for possible “failure to fight a disaster” over the pandemic, which has so far killed more than 115,000 people in France.
The Le Monde daily reported that she could also face charges for “endangering the lives of others”.
Depending on the outcome, Buzyn could either be charged immediately or given the status of “assisted witness” which under French law means she remains under suspicion of wrongdoing, but not subject to formal charges which could still be brought later.
Philippe and her successor as health minister Olivier Veran are also being investigated for alleged shortcomings in their response to the pandemic.
Buzyn did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment. – AFP