French Cabinet Star Hits Speed Bumps

Justice Minister Rachida Dati smiles as she enters the Elysee Palace in Paris, July 9, 2007. Dati, the come-from-behind symbol of President Nicolas Sarkozy's bold bid to make diversity a French value, is getting some bad press with aides deserting her, questions about her double nationality and, now, a sibling scheduled for trial on a drugs rap. (AP Photo/Michael Sawyer) (Michael Sawyer - AP)

PARIS -- Rachida Dati, a self-made daughter of immigrants, triumphantly joined the Cabinet as the star symbol for the president's bid to make France value its diversity. But the hard-charging justice minister has lately hit some speed bumps.

A top aide quit a week ago, followed by three more. Then prosecutors announced that one of Dati's brothers was going on trial for drug trafficking.

Since her appointment two months ago, Dati had been in the media spotlight, appearing on the covers of weekly magazines and lauded for her determination.

She was raised in the projects with 11 siblings, the 41-year-old daughter of an Algerian mother and Moroccan father. And, like President Nicolas Sarkozy, carved out a potent career on the strength of her intelligence and ambition.

"She must succeed because it is a message to a diverse France, a multiple France, the sign that everyone has a chance," Sarkozy said Thursday, defending his high-profile appointee from mounting criticism.

Dati was trained as a judge, then crossed into big business before persuading Sarkozy to hire her when he was interior minister in 2002. As a presidential campaign adviser, she worked to rebuild his reputation in the heavily immigrant housing projects, which he had angered by calling delinquent youths there "scum."

She was the perfect fit for Sarkozy's plan to jolt France out of its complacency and use hard work and symbolism to convey his vision of a multicultural society on the move.

Working in the glare of the media limelight, Dati hammered out a dozen or so ideas for reforming the legal system _ not all of them popular _ and she began selling them to parliament.

But suddenly she was beset by distractions. A week ago, her top aide, Michel Dobkine, resigned after 20 years at the Justice Ministry. That was followed days later by the departure of three other key aides, all magistrates who helped craft the judicial reforms.

More bad news came Friday: Judicial officials said one of her brothers, Jamel Dati, was scheduled for trial next week in a drug trafficking case.

Worse, he is a multiple offender _ just the type of case that Dati wants to get tough with through one of her reforms. Her reform bill goes to the National Assembly on Tuesday, the day her brother goes to court in Nancy, in eastern France.

Dati has remained silent about her week, commenting neither on the departure of her aides nor on her brother's legal travails. Justice Ministry spokesman Guillaume Didier said the minister had no knowledge of the case and "is not close" to her brother.

Didier also disputed speculation that the departure of four officials indicated problems or "malaise" in the Justice Ministry. He said Dobkine, the top aide, resigned for personal reasons and the three others left in a reorganization that followed, he said.

Dobkine, too, tried to minimize his leave-taking. "It is not an affair of state. It's a micro-event," he told France-Info radio.

However, he made clear he had been overworked. "I worked with a minister who wanted to go very fast, push the envelope ... and who obviously demanded a very important availability _ 100,000 percent," he said, conceding that such demands "generate tensions."