Rachida Dati appears at Renault-Nissan corruption trial

Former French culture minister Rachida Dati appeared in court on Wednesday on corruption and influence-peddling charges linked to alleged dealings with the Renault-Nissan group.

Dati, 60, denies all the charges. She is accused of accepting 900,000 euros, around $1 million, in lawyers' fees from a Netherlands-based Renault-Nissan subsidiary between October 2009 and February 2013, when she was a member of the European Parliament.

French prosecutors argue that a legal services contract signed in 2009 between Dati and former Renault-Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn, under which she was paid an annual fee of 300,000 euros, was used to disguise lobbying work.

Dati's lawyers said she worked “exclusively” as a lawyer for the subsidiary and called the influence-peddling allegations an artificial construct by the prosecution.

Ghosn, 72, is being tried in absentia. He remains in Lebanon after escaping Japan, where he had been arrested in 2018 on suspicion of financial misconduct before being sacked by Nissan's board. He denies wrongdoing. In a letter sent to the court in August, he requested that the proceedings be postponed and said he was prepared to appear by video link to explain facts he disputes.

If convicted, Dati faces up to 10 years in prison, a fine of up to 450,000 euros and a possible five-year ban on holding public office.

Dati served as justice minister from 2007 to 2009 under President Nicolas Sarkozy and remains mayor of Paris's wealthy 7th district. She resigned as culture minister in February to focus on the Paris mayoral race, which she lost in March to Socialist Emmanuel Gregoire.