Slander scandal

The appeal trial of former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin opened in Paris on Monday as prosecutors attempted a second time to pursue allegations he slandered President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The conservative politician and Sarkozy's rival had been cleared of all charges in January 2010, but now the prosecution was appealing the ruling.

De Villepin made no comment on the trial as he arrived at the court.

The complex case dates back to 2004 and centers on a list of account holders at the Clearstream bank who were alleged to have received kickbacks from the sale of French frigates to Taiwan. Among the names on that list, which was later proved to be forged, was Sarkozy's, who at that point had been serving as finance and interior minister under then-president Jacques Chirac.

The main charge brought against de Villepin is that he knew the list was falsified but did nothing to stop an investigation into it, leading public prosecutors to label him an "accomplice by abstention."

Unlike in the first trial, Sarkozy, along with two supporters of the president whose names were also on the fake Clearstream list, will not be among the plaintiffs.

De Villepin's lawyer, Olivier Metzner, said the absence of political adversaries in the trial would make for more "serene" proceedings. "This will make is easier to obtain confirmation of the decision to clear my client of all charges," he said.

Blame game

But many are hoping the appeal trial can shed light on the intriguing question of who tried to smear Sarkozy in the first place. In the first trial, the mathematician and computer whiz-kid Imud Lahoud finally admitted to having fabricated the kickbacks documents.

The judge ruled that he did so under orders from Jean-Louis Gergorin, former second in command at the Franco-German aerospace giant EADS. But in this second trial Gergorin's lawyer, Paul-Albert Iweins, is trying to prove that far from being the brains behind the Clearstream fraud, Gergorin was himself taken in by it.

Gergorin and de Villepin are therefore arguing that the plot was hatched by Lahoud, who received 18 months in prison and was ordered to pay 40,000 euros ($59,000) for his involvement.

But at the opening of the trial, Lahoud told French radio that he was not the sole conspirator in the case.

"It's true that I lied before, like Jean-Louis Gergorin and Dominique de Villepin lied," he said. "All three of us lied. I was in the grip of Jean-Louis Gergorin and Dominique de Villepin. I was asked to do certain things and I accepted to do them. I am not going to do as Dominique de Villepin and Jean-Louis Gergorin do and pretend I told the truth. It didn’t work. I lost."

Lahoud will be hoping the second trial will not land him back in prison, while Gergorin, who was dealt a 15-month prison sentence last year and was also ordered to pay a 40,000-euro fine, will be seeking to have his name cleared.

The prosecutor at the first trial called for de Villepin to be sentenced to 18 months in prison and fined 45,000 euros. The appeal trial is set to run until May 26, around a year ahead of elections in which de Villepin is expected to challenge for the French presidency. If he is found guilty, he will be ineligible to run for election.

Author: John Laurenson, Darren Mara
Editor: Rob Turner