Jacques Chirac will tomorrow become the first former President in French history to go on trial as a common criminal.The retired 78-year-old faces up to 10 years in prison, a £100,000 fine and a five year voting ban if found guilty of corruption charges.
The main allegation is that Chirac created scores of fictitious jobs during his period as Paris mayor in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This allegedly enabled him to channel thousands of pounds worth of bogus salaries into his RPR (Gathering for the Republic) party, the forerunner of Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP, which runs France today.
Chirac admits that the financing scam happened, but denies knowing anything about it at the time. He enjoyed immunity from prosecution during his period as President, between 1995 and 2007, but prosecutors charged him last year following a protracted investigation.
He will be tried in the Première Chambre Civile of the Palais de Justice, where a revolutionary tribunal condemned Queen Marie-Antoinette to death by guillotine during the French Revolution of 1789.
Well, I doubt that will happen, but we can always hope...
