Agnes Buzyn, France’s former health minister, was placed under formal investigation on Friday for her handling of the COVID-19 outbreak last year after investigators at a special court in Paris decided there was enough evidence to charge her.
Buzyn has been charged with "endangering the lives of others," according to the Republic's Court of Justice prosecutor, but not with a second possible offence of "failure to prevent a tragedy."
The former doctor, who has the right to appeal the verdict, appeared in court on Friday, saying she was looking forward to "an excellent opportunity for me to explain myself and to establish the truth."
She said she would not "let the action of the government be discredited, or my action as a minister, when we did so much to prepare our country for a global health crisis that is still ongoing."
Buzyn resigned in February 2020 to run for mayor of Paris, citing COVID-19 as a low-risk position. However, she later stated that she was aware that a "tsunami" was approaching.
It's one of the first times a minister has been held legally responsible for a pandemic response.
Buzyn became France's health minister in May 2017 and resigned just weeks after the country's first COVID-19 cases were verified.
Last year, she lost the mayoral election in Paris to Anne Hidalgo. In January 2021, the former doctor joined the cabinet of World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The announcement comes as part of a wider investigation into the government's pandemic response - including its preparedness, policy changes, and its reception of scientific research into the virus.
In the next weeks, France's current health minister, Olivier Véran, could be called before the same justices.
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