Paris prosecutors will request that former prime minister Dominique de Villepin stand trial for his alleged role in the so-called Clearstream smear scandal, a judicial source said today.
In a report marking the close of investigations, Paris state prosecutor Jean-Claude Marin recommended that Mr Villepin go on trial for "complicity in slanderous accusations", the subject of inquiries dating back to last year, the source said.
Mr Villepin was questioned in September 2007 on suspicion of using intelligence services to try to dig up dirt on Nicolas Sarkozy three years before the presidential election, which his arch-rival won last year.
The former prime minister has denied any wrongdoing and questioned whether he would get a fair hearing given that Mr Sarkozy is a so-called "partie civile" in the case, which means he is a plaintiff claiming damages in a criminal case.
The scandal emerged in 2004 when anonymous letters were sent to an examining magistrate alleging that Sarkozy and a group of other senior politicians held secret accounts at Luxembourg-based securities clearing house Clearstream.
The accounts proved fake and magistrates focused their investigation on who was behind the anonymous denunciation.
Mr Villepin has said that his responsibilities as foreign and then interior minister obliged him to order officials to look into claims that Mr Sarkozy was linked to the affair.
Mr Marin will also seek trials for Jean-Louis Gergorin, a former vice president at Airbus parent company EADS, and three others including a journalist, for their alleged roles, the source said, on condition of anonymity.
A judge will decide whether the trial, which would be unlikely to begin before late 2009 and could take years to wrap up, will take place.
Reuters