FRANCE’S FORMER president Jacques Chirac will face trial next March on charges that he misused public funds during his tenure as Paris mayor.
The trial date was confirmed yesterday after the Cour de Cassation, France’s highest court, granted Mr Chirac’s request to combine two similar cases relating to his time in city hall between 1977 and 1995.
Mr Chirac (78), who was immune from prosecution during his 12 years as head of state, will be the first former French president to face criminal charges since the foundation of the Fifth Republic.
The two cases, filed by judges in Paris and Nanterre last year, concern allegations – denied by Mr Chirac – that he created a total of 28 fictitious jobs for political allies while he was mayor of Paris. If convicted, he could face up to five years in prison and a fine of up to €75,000.
The trial will proceed on March 7th despite a public prosecutor having recommended that charges against Mr Chirac in the case involving 21 of the alleged fictitious jobs be dropped due to insufficient evidence. The Paris mayor’s office also withdrew its civil complaint after Mr Chirac and the ruling UMP party agreed to repay city hall €2.2 million, which is the sum of the bogus salaries, interest and legal fees.
The UMP provided 75 per cent of the total as a gesture of “solidarity” with Mr Chirac, said the party’s then secretary general, Xavier Bertrand in August, while Mr Chirac paid the rest.
Mr Chirac’s lawyer, Jean Veil, said the former president had always denied committing any crime, and insisted the disputed jobs were legitimate and useful for the city of Paris.
The Nanterre case has already led to the conviction of one of Mr Chirac’s political proteges, former prime minister Alain Juppé. In 2003, Mr Juppé received a 14-month suspended sentence and a one-year ban from holding elected office over his role in the hiring of six people while serving as finance director at the Mairie de Paris under Mr Chirac. Mr Juppé returned to cabinet as President Nicolas Sarkozy’s defence minister last month.