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Jacques Chirac

The former French President Jacques Chirac has been given by a court a two-year suspended prison sentence for diverting public funds and abusing public trust.

Jacques Chirac, 79, was not in court to hear the verdict because of ill-health but denied wrongdoing.

President from 1995 to 2007, he was put on trial on charges that dated back to his time as mayor of Paris.

Jacques Chirac was accused of paying members of his Rally for the Republic (RPR) party for municipal jobs that did not exist.

The former French President Jacques Chirac has been given by a court a two-year suspended prison sentence for diverting public funds and abusing public trust

The former French President Jacques Chirac has been given by a court a two-year suspended prison sentence for diverting public funds and abusing public trust

The prosecution had urged the judge to acquit Jacques Chirac and nine others accused in the trial. Two of the nine were cleared. The other seven were found guilty and all but one handed suspended prison sentences.

Jean de Gaulle, grandson of former President Charles de Gaulle, was handed a three-month suspended term while former union leader Marc Blondel, 73, was convicted but escaped a sentence.

In 2004, during his presidency, several figures including France’s current Foreign Minister Alain Juppe were convicted in connection with the case.

Alain Juppe was given a 14-month suspended sentence.

Jacques Chirac, mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995, is the first former French head of state to be convicted since Marshal Philippe Petain, the leader of the wartime Vichy regime, was found guilty in 1945 of collaborating with the Nazis.

The verdict would come as a surprise to the French public because the prosecution said it had not been proven that Jacques Chirac had known of individual cases of fake jobs.

The case was divided into two parts: the first count involved embezzlement and breach of trust in relation to 21 bogus jobs; the second related to a charge of illegal conflict of interest concerning seven jobs.

Jacques Chirac was found guilty of both.

The former president, who had legal immunity during his time as head of state, faced a potential 10 years in prison and a fine of 150,000 euros for the employment of more than 20 bogus officials.

“Jacques Chirac has breached the duty of probity required for public officials, to the detriment of the public interest of Parisians,” said tribunal judge, Dominique Pauthe.

Although Jacques Chirac himself was not in court, his adopted daughter Anh Dao Traxel was present to hear the verdict which she described as “too, too severe for him” and a great source of pain.

“As a family, we should all absolutely support him… for his health for the rest of his life,” Anh Dao Traxel said in an emotional statement outside the court.

The former president’s doctors say Jacques Chirac has irreversible neurological problems which cause memory lapses. His legal team will now consider whether to appeal against the conviction.

“For those expecting the case to be thrown out or at least no penalty, the ruling may appear disappointing,” said one of Jacques Chirac’s lawyers, Georges Kiejman.

“I hope this judgement won’t change at all the profound affection that the French people still have towards Jacques Chirac.”

There was little sympathy from some quarters.

“I call on Mr. Chirac to accept the consequences of his conviction and indeed resign from the Constitutional Council,” said Green presidential candidate Eva Joly, referring to his role in France’s highest authority for constitutional issues.

His rival for the presidency in 2002, former National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, described the verdict as “a ray of sunshine in the black sky of scandals”.

For Michel Roussin, former director of Jacques Chirac’s cabinet who was found not guilty by the court of abuse of trust, the ex-president had “assumed his political responsibility”.

After 17 years of “incessant battles”, he said he was relieved the case was over.

The former France President Jacques Chirac says he is not in a fit state to attend his corruption trial, according to French media.

Jacques Chirac has asked the Paris court for his lawyers be allowed to represent him, AFP news agency has reported.

Jacques Chirac, 78, is accused of embezzling public funds in the 1990s, when he was mayor of Paris, but he denies the charges.

His trial is due to start on September 5, having been adjourned in March after a co-defendant argued that some of the charges were unconstitutional.

Jacques Chirac is the first former head of state to stand trial in France since World War II

Jacques Chirac is the first former head of state to stand trial in France since World War II

 

In a letter to the Paris court on Friday, Jacques Chirac wrote that he wanted his trial to go ahead “even if he no longer has the full ability to participate in hearings”.

A statement from former president Chirac’s lawyers said:

“In the letter… he requested that his lawyers be able to represent him and carry his voice during these hearings.”

A copy of Jacques Chirac’s medical records was enclosed in the letter, it added.

The medical report attached to Jacques Chirac’s letter to the court suggests his mind is in a “vulnerable mental state which does not permit him to answer questions about his past”.

This supports suggestions from friends of the ex-president that in recent months he has been suffering from memory lapses.

While the letter is an informal request, it is within the judge’s powers to accept it, or request a second medical opinion.

The letter could result in the trial being delayed, and possibly postponed indefinitely if it is deemed that Jacques Chirac is no longer able to talk with any reliability about things that happened more than 20 years ago.

French media described Jacques Chirac as tired during a holiday in St. Tropez last month, although he reportedly signed autographs and posed for pictures with tourists.

Jacques Chirac, who was mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995, is the first former head of state to stand trial in France since World War II.

The ex-president is accused on two counts of paying members of his Rally for the Republic (RPR) party for municipal jobs that did not exist.

The first count accuses Jacques Chirac of embezzlement and breach of trust relating to 21 so-called “ghost jobs”.

The second count came about from a separate investigation in the Paris suburb of Nanterre and involves an illegal conflict of interest relating to seven ghost jobs.

There were persistent rumors of wrongdoing for years, but Jacques Chirac had immunity from prosecution while he was president from 1995 to 2007.

After 11 years of legal wrangling, Chirac and nine other defendants finally went in court in March.

However, on the second day of the trial a lawyer representing Jacques Chirac’s former chief of staff at city hall, Remy Chardon, challenged the two cases being brought together.

He argued that the statute of limitations had expired in the first case.

The judge decided to refer the question to the Court of Cassation, which ruled that the constitutional challenge was not valid.