Posted on 09/20/2009 6:49:10 PM PDT by Saije
In what has been dubbed the trial of the decade, former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin of France will face charges of allegedly plotting to tarnish the name of his former rival and now the president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy.
France's state prosecutors ordered Villepin, a protégé of former President Jacques Chirac and longstanding political rival of the incumbent French president, to stand trial in a four-year-old scandal known as the Clearstream affair.
The scandal dating back to 2004, started when a list containing the name of businessmen, celebrities and politicians among them Sarkozy, leaked to the media.
The document alleged that the cited individuals had been laundering bribes through secret accounts with the Clearstream bank in Luxembourg.
The list was later proved to be fabricated.
Subsequent investigations revealed that the so-called whistleblower was a friend of Villepin. The former golden boy of the French government, however, has denied all charges of "complicity in calumnious denunciations."
Sarkozy, who by virtue of his office presides over the Magistrates Council as well as the Justice Ministry, is a civil plaintiff in the scandal.
The trial on Monday is believed to be a showdown between the two men, who were fighting a war at the time of Jacques Chirac to succeed as president.
(Excerpt) Read more at presstv.ir ...
About time this bum faced the music!!!
If Sarkozy’s wife is televised, it WILL be riveting!
:)
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