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Latest update: 16/12/2011
- corruption - France - Jacques Chirac
Former president Chirac convicted in corruption trial
Former French president Jacques Chirac was found guilty on Thursday of embezzling funds and violating public trust for hiring members of his political party for non-existent civil jobs while he was mayor of Paris. Chirac says he will not appeal.
By FRANCE 24 (text)
Former French president Jacques Chirac was given a two-year suspended jail sentence on Thursday after he was convicted of embezzling public money to finance his political party. Chirac has said he will not appeal.
Sentenced for creating fake civil service jobs while he was mayor of Paris between 1977 and 1995, Chirac is the first former French President to be convicted of a criminal offence since the Second World War.
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He was found guilty of charges – which he denied – that he hired allies in non-existent civil service posts, effectively using the public purse to keep his campaign staff on the payroll.
Prosecutors said that conservative politician Chirac was the “inventor, author and beneficiary” of a conspiracy to use public funds to “support his political influence” and serve his own “interests and ambitions, or those of his party”.
FRANCE 24 correspondent Luke Brown, reporting from the court, said the verdict carried a double dose of bad news for the former president.
“Not only has he been found guilty, but the court also found that he was the sole person behind the case and that it was not his subordinates’ fault,” he said. “It was Chirac’s decision and his alone to hand out these fake jobs.”
The 79-year-old, who was president between 1995 and 2007, was not at the Paris court to hear the judge’s verdict, with doctors saying that he was suffering severe neurological problems.
Chirac’s lawyer Georges Kiejman told reporters after the verdict that despite the ruling, he hoped that the popular former leader would retain his positive reputation among the people of the country.
“I hope that this ruling doesn't change in any way the deep affection the French feel legitimately for Jacques Chirac,” he said. “We have to take a step back and read this ruling, we have to speak of course with the main person involved (Chirac), and we will know tonight if he accepts this decision or, on the contrary, he wants - on principle – to appeal.”
In 2004, former French Prime Minister and current Foreign Minister Alain Juppé was found guilty of mishandling public funds in the same case and given a suspended sentence.
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(11) Reactions
Chirac's conviction
I thought that the statement made by Chirac's daughter, Anh Dao Traxel, (presumably on the part of his immediate family) was dignified and graceful. He has been (I think quite fairly and rightly) convicted. Now, considering that he is an elderly man with neurological deficits, and how long ago this crime was committed; the family should be left in peace. Much more fuss should have been made of the SUSPENDED sentence of Juppe when that occurred.
Chirac
It is sad to read of his conviction but such behaviour is not uncommon among politictions. The French must give him great credit for keeping them out of the disastrious and illegal invasion of Iraq.
Would you expect less of a
Would you expect less of a Socialist/Liberal? Their success in reckless spending lasts only as long as the money of others lasts. Bring back the guillotine!
Chirac
Yea, he was a crook, but he had a great personality. The French are smart enough to know he was a crook.
Chirac Guilty
Do not worry my French friends. You are not alone. It will be the same for us Americans some day, when the courts get done with Obama.
He was corrupt...period.
He was corrupt...period. There should not be a positive image based on emotion and feeling for chirac. What if you like robbers who steal, they should be given a pass cause you like them? Mature people should not function in hypocrisy.
Chirac
Your reporter refers to Chirac as a "conservative". In America, an authentic conservative believes in the rule of law for everyone. France and the EU are ruled by top down bureaucrats who make it up as they go along. Why isn't he jail like any common crook? He is not in jail because he is an exclusive member of the political elite who live by their own rules. Remember what happened to the Bourbon elites in 1789.
Socialist
A socialist embezzling funds??? Who'd of thunk it! Wait a minute, that's all they do, isn't it? Take other people's money. Can't fault them for an ingrained habit.
Chirac's ostensible "innocence"
President Bush the younger refrained from publishing the captured documents from Hussein's palaces proving beyond a doubt that Chirac was on the take from the "oil for Food" program, along with deVillepan and other bums in the French government.
I so wish he'd made public these facts, and we'd have been done with the has-been French once and for all.
America for my money should just wash our hands of the French government, absent the DGSE who have been very helpful in nailing terrorists. Unfortunately, this great organization reports to the Prime Minister, currently the idiot Villepan...and so it goes...
When the time comes the lame French are howling because their Country is being overrun by Muslim nutballs, I suggest you save your own a$$es, and we'll mind our own business this time around.
Do not misunderstand...the French PEOPLE (absent Paris and environs...) are TERRIFIC...welcoming, grateful for the USA's saving their country's butts twice in the 20th. Century, and the most kind, polite, good natured people I've ever met. The few government officials I've met, however, are dumber than a bag of hammers, and should stick their heads in a bucket of brine for a few hours.
America might not have been at all absent the help of the French, and I for one will always be grateful for this little historical item...but the current leadership of France SUCKS...and I hope the people find a way to shut them up and throw them out for good.
Socialism does not work...how many examples of this utter failure must we suffer while the elites run along with their heads up their behinds?
It would be so nice if the French government could be replaced...maybe they would like the bum we now suffer here in the States OBummer would fit right in...meantime, should French people require help from me, just ask...we owe you a lot, but it would be so much easier to help without your current government idiots in office.
Bon Chance...
Corrupt French Pols
Jacques, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.