It was made known today that Jacques Chirac, the former French president, has been ordered to stand trial for an alleged corruption scandal that goes back to his years as Paris mayor between 1977 and 1995, just before he became president of the country. The investigating magistrate, Xaviere Simeoni, has been proving whether people in Chirac’s circle were given jobs as advisers and paid by Paris City Hall, even though they weren’t working for it. In a statement from Chirac’s office it is been said that the former president was “serene and determined to demonstrate to the tribunal that none of the contracts that are still in debate were for non-existent jobs.” A prosecutor can still appeal the decision but were Mr Chirac stand trial, he will be the first former French head of State to be prosecuted for corruption, a humiliating end to a career of 30 years in French politics.
But this is not the only political trial that takes place in France these days. Since September, the trial of Dominique de Villepin, who was France’s interior minister between March 2004 and May 2005, has riveted the attention of the French. He stands accused of seeking to derail Sarkozy’s presidential campaign by linking him to a corruption scandal. While the trial has finished, the judgment will not be delivered for several months.
And then, we had the sentencing of Charles Pasqua, another French minister of interior, to one year prison for ‘influence peddling’ and ‘misuse of public assets.’ The trial has been known as the Angolagate, or the Mitterrand-Pasqua affair. It is a international political scandal over the secret sale and shipment of arms from Central Europe to the Government of Angola in the 1990. After his sentencing, Pasqua demanded the official secrecy act on arms sale documents to be lifted. Then he openly accused the two former French presidents François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac and two former prime ministers to have been ‘aware’ of the arms sales despite a UN embargo.
A busy season in the French courts of justice.
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Andrew Young November 8, 2009 at 5:04 pm
One can at least credit the French legal system with taking on these cases. Arms dealers are the shadowy group of individuals who are both protected by and cursed by governments. Were we only fortunate enough to remove the cloak of secrecy that covers the Italian, Russian, British, and American political machinations. De Villepin’s trial-the timing of it-should be investigated as well.