French judges seize Chirac video

Amid unprecedented demands that a French president be called as a court witness, three French judges yesterday seized a videotape confession that accuses President Jacques Chirac of having received a 5 million francs (£600,240) cash kickback and ordering his subordinates to seek bribes from companies bidding on public contracts.

"It is difficult to see how Jacques Chirac can stay at the Elys ee, taking refuge in his haughty denial," said an editorial in the left-wing Liberation yesterday, after Le Monde revealed the contents of a tape recorded by the Gaullist "collector" for Mr Chirac's RPR party, Jean-Claude Mery in 1996.

Liberation called on Mr Chirac to "explain himself to the relevant judge regarding the grave accusations against him".

Earlier, the Association of Professional Magistrates issued a statement saying it was "a civic obligation" for Mr Chirac to volunteer to be questioned by a judge.

Meanwhile, the judges Eric Halphen, Armand Riberolles and Marc Brisset-Foucault, who are investigating allegations of RPR corruption, searched the offices of Sunset Presse, whose director recorded the incriminating video in 1996, three years before Mr Mery's death from cancer. In the second half of the confession, published by Le Monde yesterday, Mr Mery said the millions of francs he collected were destined for the RPR "not for the personal pocket of Jacques Chirac".

He was abandoned by political allies when Judge Halphen imprisoned him for five months in 1995. "We plead with you, JeanClaude," RPR officials allegedly told Mr Mery. "Chirac's election depends on your silence."

The French right rallied around Mr Chirac after his angry denial on Thursday evening, accusing the left of "fabricating" the videotape at a time when the Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin has plummeted in opinion polls. "The presidential campaign has just started," the RPR spokesman Mr Patrick Devedjian said. "Unfortunately it's starting in a ditch full of liquid manure."

Since 1988 France has passed four laws on the financing of political parties, including a 1990 law which amnestied violations prior to June 1989 - including most of the kickbacks revealed by Mr Mery.

From the Communist leader Mr Robert Hue to the Gaullist Mr Philippe Seguin, most French politicians emphasised the "nauseating, ignominious and sordid" nature of Le Monde's publication of the text of the video. Socialist officials also gave the impression they wanted to put fund-raising scandals behind them. The party's leader, Mr Francois Hollande, said the Socialists did not want to turn forthcoming elections into a mud-slinging battle.

After the RPR mayor of Paris, Mr Jean Tiberi - who is not implicated by the tape - said it "could only satisfy him", several commentators wondered whether he was behind the video's appearance.

Mr Tiberi has until now carried most of the opprobrium for the RPR's murky finances and is on the verge of being thrown out of the party because he refused to step down gracefully.