Covid-19 management: Olivier Veran has been in witness status since June

This is a less incriminating status than an indictment, which gives access to the case but avoids the risk of going to trial. According to sources close to the matter.

Olivier Veran, who was health minister from February 2020 to May 2022, was given assisting witness status for voluntarily abstaining from disaster response, one of these sources said. It was listened to three times, especially in July and November.

On November 14, Olivier Veran mentioned this placement as a witness-assistant on the set of Mediapart, causing “discussions that I report very naturally and very pleasantly to CJR, which do not pose any difficulties for me.”

Agnès Buzin and Edouard Philippe also assisted witnesses.

A judicial investigation into the government’s handling of the pandemic has been open since July 2020 on charges of endangering the lives of others and voluntarily refraining from combating a natural disaster. The investigation was launched on July 7, 2020, following several complaints since the beginning of confinement in France about the lack of protective equipment for caregivers and the public, or even about errors regarding the need or lack of wearing masks.

In this context, searches were carried out in October 2020 in, inter alia, the homes and offices of Édouard Philippe, Agnès Buzin, Olivier Véran, his successor at the Ministry of Health, and former government member Sibeth Ndiaye.

Then in September 2021, Agnès Buzyn, health minister from May 2017 to February 2020, was charged with endangering the lives of others. She disputed this charge and had it overturned in the Court of Cassation. She is now given more favorable witness status, receiving assistance for endangering the lives of others, as well as for voluntarily refraining from fighting a natural disaster.

Former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe has been on trial since October 2022 for endangering the lives of others and voluntarily refraining from fighting a natural disaster.