French fugitive returns to applause

Was it spite or admiration that made the public stand and crane their necks, then applaud when Alfred Sirven entered the dock flanked by two gendarmes yesterday.

Judge Sophie Portier demanded silence as the suntanned, 74-year-old former oil company executive stood beaming, apparently amused by the attention, and spry despite the long flight from the Philippines, a meeting with examining magistrates until 3 a.m. and his first night in the notorious La Sante prison.

Mr Sirven was an even bigger draw than his co-accused, Mr Roland Dumas. To have been a foreign minister with a glamorous, expensive mistress was one thing. But to steal Ffr 3 billion £360 million) from a state owned company . . .

No wonder the corridors and doorways of the Palais de Justice were packed with cameramen and onlookers. Alfred Sirven has entered French folklore. The whole country knows that when Filipino police came to arrest him on February 2nd, Mr Sirven swallowed the chip from his mobile phone. His four-year flight from justice - in the company of his young Filipina maid Ms Vilma Medina - is legend. Mr Sirven travelled between hideouts with suitcases of designer suits, Havanas and vintage wine.

Legendary too, the bons mots attributed to Mr Sirven.

"Life is short. And an accident happens so quickly," was his favourite threat. "Elf is a big cooking pot," he told Ms Christine Deviers-Joncour, Mr Dumas's former mistress. "We're going to cook our little vegetables in it, and you'll get your golden spoon."

For two weeks, Mr Sirven's six co-accused heaped accusations on him. Yet one by one the defendants approached the dock to greet him yesterday. Ms Deviers-Joncour, the self-described "whore of the Republic", kissed on both cheeks the man who paid her Ffr 64 million £7.68 million) for being Mr Dumas's mistress. Loik Le Floch Prigent, the former chairman of Elf Aquitaine who hired Mr Sirven, shook his hand warmly - a week after he said that Mr Sirven betrayed him.

Mr Dumas shook Mr Sirven's hand too, though he'd claimed they barely knew one another. When the trial resumes on March 12th, Mr Sirven may say whether Mr Dumas asked him to employ Ms Deviers-Joncour.

The French government went to a lot of trouble and expense to find Mr Sirven in the Philippines, the prosecutor argued in response to Mr Sirven's lawyer's plea that he be released on bail.

The judge agreed. So until further notice, Mr Sirven will reside in the VIP section of La Sante prison, along with the convicted war criminal Maurice Papon.