By Makini Brice and Dominique Patton
PARIS (Reuters) -The French prosecutor’s office for financial crimes has requested former automobile executive Carlos Ghosn and French culture minister Rachida Dati stand trial following its probe into corruption, a judicial source said on Friday.
A judge must make a decision on the request.
Investigators had been probing the consulting fees Dati once received from the Renault-Nissan auto alliance. The alliance had hired Dati as a consultant after she stepped down as justice minister to stand for the European Parliament.
Dati has denied irregularities in the fees she received during that time and Ghosn, who fled from Japan in a box aboard a private jet to Lebanon, has denied allegations of misconduct against him.
Ghosn, who holds French, Lebanese and Brazilian citizenships, has not left Lebanon since 2019 because of an Interpol Red Notice issued by Japan.
Ghosn’s lawyers said he had learned about the request through media reports and challenged the legal basis of the legal procedures.
“Trapped on Lebanese territory because of a judicial decision, it is impossible for him to respond to the summons,” they said. “It was impossible for him to access elements of the dossier and participate in the process, in flagrant violation of the right to defence.”
Representatives for the culture ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Representatives for Renault and Nissan declined to comment.
(Reporting by Makini Brice, Juliette Jabkhiro, Dominique Vidalon, Dominique Patton and Gilles Guillaume in Paris and Maya Gebeily in Beirut; Editing by Toby Chopra, Angus MacSwan and Jonathan Oatis)