Graft trial date set for Chirac
Source: Agencies |
June 21, 2011, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
A FRENCH court yesterday scheduled for September a long-awaited trial of former President Jacques Chirac over the alleged misuse of public funds when he was mayor of Paris.
The trial, which follows years of wrangling and delays, will be the first of a former French head of state since 1945, when Marshall Philippe Petain was convicted of treason for collaborating with the Nazis during World War Two.
Chirac, 78 and president from 1995 to 2007, is accused of using public money to pay for phantom jobs for political cronies while he was mayor of Paris between 1977 and 1995.
If found guilty he could face up to 10 years in prison and a fine of 150,000 euros (US$213,400).
France has a deep-rooted culture of impunity for political figures. With Chirac increasingly fondly regarded as he ages, public calls for him to face trial once he lost his presidential immunity have been muted.
His frail health, including memory lapses and poor hearing following a small stroke several years ago, means Chirac is unlikely to attend much of the trial in person.
"The (former) president will certainly come to the initial hearings, that's certain. When his presence is not necessary, clearly he won't come," Chirac's lawyer Georges Kiejman said.
A trial set for March was postponed so the Court of Appeals could consider a complaint from a co-defendant that some of the alleged offenses were too old to be tried under a statute of limitations. The complaint was rejected in May. Nine co-defendants will be tried alongside Chirac at the hearings that would run from September 5 until September 23.
The trial, which follows years of wrangling and delays, will be the first of a former French head of state since 1945, when Marshall Philippe Petain was convicted of treason for collaborating with the Nazis during World War Two.
Chirac, 78 and president from 1995 to 2007, is accused of using public money to pay for phantom jobs for political cronies while he was mayor of Paris between 1977 and 1995.
If found guilty he could face up to 10 years in prison and a fine of 150,000 euros (US$213,400).
France has a deep-rooted culture of impunity for political figures. With Chirac increasingly fondly regarded as he ages, public calls for him to face trial once he lost his presidential immunity have been muted.
His frail health, including memory lapses and poor hearing following a small stroke several years ago, means Chirac is unlikely to attend much of the trial in person.
"The (former) president will certainly come to the initial hearings, that's certain. When his presence is not necessary, clearly he won't come," Chirac's lawyer Georges Kiejman said.
A trial set for March was postponed so the Court of Appeals could consider a complaint from a co-defendant that some of the alleged offenses were too old to be tried under a statute of limitations. The complaint was rejected in May. Nine co-defendants will be tried alongside Chirac at the hearings that would run from September 5 until September 23.
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