Trial brings pair of celebrated lovers together

Mr Roland Dumas and Ms Christine Deviers-Joncour were lovers for seven years, but they didn't even look at each other in court yesterday. Both stand accused of taking millions of francs from the then state-owned oil company Elf-Aquitaine between 1989 and 1993, while Mr Dumas was foreign minister. If found guilty, both risk up to five years in prison and over £300,000 in fines.

Although five businessmen are also in the dock, Mr Dumas (78) and Ms Deviers-Joncour (53) are the undisputed stars of the biggest French corruption trial in decades.

When Mr Dumas arrived, it took 15 gendarmes to extricate him from the scrum of photographers and cameramen. Mr Dumas limped into the oak panelled tribunal leaning on a walking-stick. His trial was supposed to have taken place last June, but was postponed because of a hip operation.

A hush fell over the court as Mr Dumas walked in wearing an expensive blue pin-striped suit and a sardonic smile. All eyes turned to his feet; one of the judges' grievances against Mr Dumas is that he allowed Ms Deviers-Joncour to buy a pair of custom-made shoes for him, costing £1,320, with ElfAquitaine money.

He also spent half his time in the £2,040,816 apartment that Elf bought for his mistress, and kept ancient Greek statues purchased by Elf at a cost of £36,014. Nor can he explain the origin of £1,140,456 in cash bank deposits.

Investigating magistrates believe Mr Dumas helped to have Mr Loik Le Floch-Prigent nominated chairman of Elf in 1989, and that Ms Devier-Joncour's phoney job was Mr Le Floch's way of returning the favour.

With the exception of his former mistress, who betrayed him after he abandoned her, Mr Dumas greeted his co-defendants warmly.

He shook hands with or embraced Mr Le Floch-Prigent, Mr Andre Tarallo, former head of Elf in Gabon, Mr Jean-Claude Vauchez, retired Elf executive who paid Ms Deviers-Joncour's "salary", and Mr Gilbert Miara, an estate agent whose spell as Ms Deviers-Joncour's lover overlapped that of Mr Dumas. A seventh defendant, Alfred Sirven, has been on the run for four years.

For a woman who spent £24,000 a month on clothes, Ms Deviers-Joncour was simply dressed in grey trousers and a black raincoat. With an average "salary" of £120,048 per month - a total of £7.7 million - she could afford it.

The self-described "whore of the republic" told the court she now earns £1,800 per month and lives in the unfashionable 10th arrondissement. Yet the Dumas scandal has made Ms Deviers-Joncour a celebrity, and she had more supporters in court than Mr Dumas, including her ex-husband, Claude Joncour, her son, Philippe, and her mother, Colette Deviers, all of whom will testify on her behalf.

The European Court of Human Rights is to consider a request today for the release of the former Vichy official Maurice Papon (90), who is serving a 10-year sentence for Nazi-era crimes against humanity. Papon's lawyers who argue that he is ill, and keeping him in prison is an "inhuman and degrading punishment".