Former French prime minister Dominique de Villepin appeared yesterday before judges who are investigating his suspected role in a smear campaign that targeted President Nicolas Sarkozy before he became president, judicial officials said.
Villepin's office has said it expects preliminary charges to be filed against him in the affair, a scandal that has shaken France's political world to the core.
The unusual, complex case stems from an attempt in 2003 and 2004 to discredit Sarkozy, who was a government minister at the time and a political rival of Villepin within their conservative UMP party.
Sarkozy and other prominent figures were falsely accused of having secret bank accounts in the Luxembourg clearing house Clearstream, purportedly created to hold bribes from a 1991 sale of Lafayette-class frigates to Taiwan. Investigators are trying to pin down who was behind the smear campaign.
He appeared at the Paris courthouse yesterday after returning from vacation in French Polynesia.
In a statement July 10, Villepin's office said he had been summoned for questioning by investigating judges "who expect to file preliminary charges against him."
The charges are expected to include "complicity in using forged documents" and "complicity in slanderous denunciations," judicial officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Villepin has denied wrongdoing in the Clearstream scandal, which shook up former president Jacques Chirac's administration last year.
He said in the statement his actions were "strictly in the framework" of his jobs as foreign minister and interior minister at the time.
Investigators searched Villepin's home and office in the investigation after the discovery of his name in computer files belonging to a Defense Ministry official, General Philippe Rondot, who Villepin had ordered to investigate the affair. Rondot wrote in his notes that two key players told him they acted on orders from Villepin.
Under French law, a minister or former minister has the right to argue that he should be judged by the special Court of Justice, which tries officials accused of wrongdoing in their functions. Among issues to be determined is whether Villepin would have acted in his capacity as a minister -- as he contends.
If preliminary charges are filed against him, he could, therefore, contest them.
Other prominent figures have been questioned in the case, including former prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin and Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, defense minister at the time. Chirac has refused to be questioned in the case, citing judicial immunity granted for acts during his presidential tenure.
Preliminary charges mean that the investigating judge has determined there is strong evidence to suggest involvement in a crime. The filing gives the magistrate time to pursue a deeper probe while the suspects await either a trial or release if no crime is found.
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