The FINANCIAL — The trial dubbed the “procès du siècle” started in Paris on September 21, and features big names from France’s political, industry and intelligence circles. Former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin is facing charges that he oversaw an elaborate plot to smear Nicolas Sarkozy to prevent him becoming President.
De Villepin is accused of having created fake evidence of corruption against Sarkozy in the lead up to the elections in 2004 when both men were hoping to win the right-wing party nomination and succeed President Jacques Chirac, RTE News reported. The French are calling it the trial of the decade.
The trial of the former premier, who left government in 2007, is the culmination of years of rivalry with Sarkozy, one of 40 civil plaintiffs attached to the criminal case, according to Bloomberg. For about a month, political, defense and judicial figures will be asked to testify on the tale of intrigue that goes back to 1991. Sarkozy and de Villepin worked side by side in former President Jacques Chirac’s cabinet, and vied to represent their party in the 2007 presidential race.
“There’s no precedent for this,” said Laurent Dubois, a professor at the Institute for Political Studies in Paris, the same source reported. “Until now, the French courts have focused on political financing, affairs of money. This here is more than anything a political case, it tackles squarely all the machinations that go into winning an election.”
Villepin, 55, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and maintains that the case would have never gone to trial had it not been for Sarkozy's "meddling" in the judicial process, according to AFP. The trial is shaping up as a showdown between the two men, whose mutual hatred is legendary in French political circles. But it will also cast light on the murky dealings of French intelligence and of one of the world's top aerospace companies, EADS.
The scandal dating back to 2004, started when a list containing the name of businessmen, celebrities and politicians among them Sarkozy, leaked to the media, Press TV informed. The document alleged that the cited individuals had been laundering bribes through secret accounts with the Clearstream bank in Luxembourg. The list was later proved to be fabricated.
Prosecutors say the document, based on a list of accounts stolen from Clearstream, was created and forwarded by former EADS Co NV executives Jean- Louis Gergorin and Imad Lahoud, according to the same source. Lahoud is accused of creating the fake list of account holders, and Gergorin of leaking it to the judge investigating the kickbacks as a tally of people tied to the affair.
Euronews gives information that Gergorin, who is also facing charges, claims Villepin made him do it, saying: “According to the evidence, it looks like Imad Lahoud falsified the accounts. There are things that prove that. I was wrong, I can see that. I was a fool. But I believed him.”
Villepin faces up to five years in jail and a 45,000-euro (66,000-dollar) fine if convicted of "complicity in slander, complicity in the use of forgeries, dealing in stolen property and breach of trust", AFP reported. In the weeks leading up to the trial, Villepin has waged a media offensive, accusing Sarkozy of being "a bit twisted" for insisting that the Clearstream affair was a plot to sabotage his bid for the presidency.
Sarkozy reportedly vowed to "hang up whoever did this on a butcher's hook", according to the same source. "Some day, he will have to explain his relentlessness," Villepin said last week. "This is not without consequences for the office of president, on the human and political level."
De Villepin's lawyers said today they would challenge the president's role as a plaintiff, which they say threatens the concept of a fair trial, Guardian gives information. Sarkozy will not be present in court. As president he holds judicial immunity and does not have to testify.
There are around 40 civil plaintiffs in the case, including politicians from the right and left such as the interior minister Brice Hortefeux, the same source reported. The hearing is expected to last a month, and a verdict is expected early next year.
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