A French judge will investigate claims brought by an NGO that the former head of the European Union border agency, Frontex, was complicit in crimes against humanity, a judicial source said on Tuesday.
Fabrice Leggeri, a former French civil servant, was frequently accused of tolerating pushbacks of asylum seekers during a seven-year spell as Frontex chief that began in 2015.
The Human Rights League (LDH) filed a complaint against him in 2024, accusing him of encouraging his staff to facilitate the interception of migrant boats by the Libyan and Greek authorities.
The judicial source told AFP a judge would investigate after the Paris Court of Appeal ruled last week there were "grounds to initiate a judicial investigation into the facts as set out in the LDH's complaint".
Representatives of Leggeri, now a member of the European Parliament for the far-right National Rally, told AFP he had not been told about the decision so had no comment to make.
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Some 34,000 asylum seekers have died or vanished since 2014 while crossing the Mediterranean, the deadliest migration route in the world, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Watch more'We are asking for a public inquiry' into migrant deaths at sea: European Ombudsman
"For the first time, one or more French investigating judges will examine the conditions of the possible criminal liability of Fabrice Leggeri in the carnage that has resulted in thousands of deaths in the Mediterranean, particularly children and women," LDH lawyer Emmanuel Daoud said on Tuesday.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
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