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Former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin faces prosecution |
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Tuesday, 07 October 2008 |
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The Paris prosecutor is to ask for ex-Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin to be put on trial as an accessory to criminal defamation.
The charges go back to 2004 when false lists of illegal bank accounts, naming hundreds of well known people, were sent to the prosecuting authorities. One of them was Nicolas Sarkozy, then a rival to de Villepin for the presidency. The prosecutor maintains that de Villepin, while Minister of the Interior, allowed enquiries to continue against Nicolas Sarkozy when he already knew the accusations were groundless. The former Prime Minister who is now a practicing advocate denies the charges.
Dominique de Villepin photo: Andy Kay
The prosecutor Jean Marin is to call for four others to be charged: journalist Denis Robert, the former Vice President of aircraft manufacturers EADS Jean-Louis Grégorin, an EADS employee and computer expert Imad Lahoud and consultant Florian Bourges. It is expected that the investigation magistrate Jean-Marie d’Huy will accept the prosecutor’s recommendation, in which case the trial will probably be held at the end of 2009. If this happens it will be the first time that an ex-Prime Minister is opposed in court to a President in office. Nicolas Sarkozy is a “partie civile” in the prosecution.
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