A former French prime minister was ordered on Tuesday to stand trial over a political smear campaign against Nicolas Sarkozy before he became France’s president, a judicial official said.
Investigating judges honored a prosecutor’s request by ordering the conservative Dominique de Villepin to stand trial in criminal court on charges of “complicity in slanderous denunciations,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
Villepin has vigorously denied the charges. He could face up to five years in prison if convicted. Four other suspected accomplices were also ordered to stand trial.
Unlike the others, Villepin can appeal the judges’ ruling — but only if he chooses to argue the alleged wrongdoing was conducted as part of his official duties. He was serving as foreign minister at the time of the alleged crimes.
An e-mail received by the Associated Press from an e-mail address bearing Villepin’s name said: “Nothing justifies this referral decision [to the court].”
“Throughout the investigation, the truth of facts and law have been diverted to the benefit of only one civil party to the case who is today at the same time the president,” the e-mail said.
The e-mail’s authenticity could not be immediately verified.
The judicial investigation hinged on the role Villepin allegedly had in spreading phony allegations in 2004 that then government minister Sarkozy and other top figures had secret bank accounts for laundering bribes. At the time, Villepin and Sarkozy, considered rivals, were both seen as leading contenders for the presidency last year, though Villepin never ran.
The scandal broke when a judge received an anonymously sent computer disc that accused Sarkozy and other top officials of using Luxembourg bank Clearstream to hide kickbacks from the sale of French frigates to Taiwan in 1991.
The charges proved baseless and investigators turned their attention to finding out who had sent the disc.
‘TERRORIST ATTACK’: The convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri resulted in the ‘martyrdom of five of our armed forces,’ the Presidential Leadership Council said A blast targeting the convoy of a Saudi Arabian-backed armed group killed five in Yemen’s southern city of Aden and injured the commander of the government-allied unit, officials said on Wednesday. “The treacherous terrorist attack targeting the convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri, commander of the Second Giants Brigade, resulted in the martyrdom of five of our armed forces heroes and the injury of three others,” Yemen’s Saudi Arabia-backed Presidential Leadership Council said in a statement published by Yemeni news agency Saba. A security source told reporters that a car bomb on the side of the road in the Ja’awla area in
PRECARIOUS RELATIONS: Commentators in Saudi Arabia accuse the UAE of growing too bold, backing forces at odds with Saudi interests in various conflicts A Saudi Arabian media campaign targeting the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has deepened the Gulf’s worst row in years, stoking fears of a damaging fall-out in the financial heart of the Middle East. Fiery accusations of rights abuses and betrayal have circulated for weeks in state-run and social media after a brief conflict in Yemen, where Saudi airstrikes quelled an offensive by UAE-backed separatists. The United Arab Emirates is “investing in chaos and supporting secessionists” from Libya to Yemen and the Horn of Africa, Saudi Arabia’s al-Ekhbariya TV charged in a report this week. Such invective has been unheard of
US President Donald Trump on Saturday warned Canada that if it concludes a trade deal with China, he would impose a 100 percent tariff on all goods coming over the border. Relations between the US and its northern neighbor have been rocky since Trump returned to the White House a year ago, with spats over trade and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney decrying a “rupture” in the US-led global order. During a visit to Beijing earlier this month, Carney hailed a “new strategic partnership” with China that resulted in a “preliminary, but landmark trade agreement” to reduce tariffs — but
SCAM CLAMPDOWN: About 130 South Korean scam suspects have been sent home since October last year, and 60 more are still waiting for repatriation Dozens of South Koreans allegedly involved in online scams in Cambodia were yesterday returned to South Korea to face investigations in what was the largest group repatriation of Korean criminal suspects from abroad. The 73 South Korean suspects allegedly scammed fellow Koreans out of 48.6 billion won (US$33 million), South Korea said. Upon arrival in South Korea’s Incheon International Airport aboard a chartered plane, the suspects — 65 men and eight women — were sent to police stations. Local TV footage showed the suspects, in handcuffs and wearing masks, being escorted by police officers and boarding buses. They were among about 260 South
RSS