The “Court of Justice of the Republic” in France ordered on Monday to refer Minister of Justice Éric Dupond-Moretti to the court on charges of exploiting his position to settle scores with judges he clashed with when he was a lawyer.

It is unprecedented in France for a Minister of Justice to be referred to court while holding his office. Consequently, the minister's attorneys announced they would appeal the decision.

The accusations against the minister are related to administrative investigations concerning three judges. The three judges had ordered the police in 2014 to scrutinize the phone records of dozens of lawyers and judges, including Dupond-Moretti, as part of an investigation involving former President Nicolas Sarkozy. The judiciary has accused Dupond-Moretti of launching a persecution campaign.

However, the minister rejected the accusation and said he acted based on recommendations from his team to investigate the possibility that the judges overseeing the phone record monitoring might have made errors.

The investigative committee of the “Court of Justice of the Republic” in Paris, responsible for examining suspicion cases of misconduct by ministers in office, ordered the minister to be referred to the court.

The minister’s attorneys, Christophe Ingran and Rémy Laurent, emphasized that the judicial order “is no longer valid.”

Laurent pointed to the “many irregularities” plaguing the case filed against the minister, accusing the public prosecutor François Molins of being “unfair and biased.”

Dupond-Moretti’s case dates back to January when the “Anticor” anti-corruption group and a judges’ union filed a legal complaint against him, accusing him of exploiting his ministerial position to settle scores with opponents in the judiciary.

Despite calls from his opponents for his dismissal, French President Emmanuel Macron reappointed him Minister of Justice during the government reshuffle that in May of this year brought Élisabeth Borne to the premiership, succeeding Jean Castex.

The two main judges’ unions in France described Dupond-Moretti’s referral to the court as “unprecedented.”

The two unions stressed in a statement the possibility of “a new conflict of interest” if Dupond-Moretti chooses a new public prosecutor to succeed Molins, who will retire in June.

The unions warned that in this case, Dupond-Moretti would be “able to appoint the entity that accuses him.”