'Schizophrenic' case attacked

2009-10-21 16:06

Carole Landry

Paris - Lawyers for Dominique de Villepin on Wednesday attacked the "schizophrenic" case that landed the former French prime minister in court on charges of plotting to smear President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Delivering closing arguments in the sensational trial, lawyer Luc Brosselet accused prosecutors of seeking to convict Villepin with dodgy evidence from unreliable witnesses.

"This is an exercise in legal schizophrenia," said Brosselet, the first of Villepin's four lawyers making a final plea for acquittal as France's trial of the decade headed to its finale.

Prosecutors on Tuesday called for an 18-month suspended sentence and a €45 000 fine to be handed down against Villepin, accused of conspiring to defame Sarkozy in 2004 and thwart his bid for the presidency.

The complex case centres on a fake list of account holders from the Clearstream financial clearing house who were said to have received kickbacks from the sale of French warships to Taiwan.

Bogus list

Sarkozy's name ended up on the bogus list and the president's lawyer has named Villepin as the prime instigator of a plot to block Sarkozy from winning the governing party's nomination and succeed President Jacques Chirac.

Villepin's defence argued that the case against the former prime minister hinged on testimony from two co-defendants - Jean-Louis Gergorin and Imad Lahoud - who the prosecution has said have lied throughout the investigation.

"Gergorin never tells the truth except when it comes to incriminating Dominique de Villepin," said Brosselet.

The lawyer also took aim at former spymaster General Philippe Rondot whose notes seized by investigators and allegedly showing that Villepin wanted to nail Sarkozy are considered a key piece of evidence.

"These notes were a fantasy, from beginning to end," he said.

Accomplice through silence

Prosecutors argued that while Villepin had not actively taken part in the plot to slander Sarkozy with falsified documents, he had failed to take action to stop the conspiracy and was therefore an "accomplice through silence".

Villepin "allowed the conspiracy to continue and to develop even though he had the ability, and also the duty, to put a halt to it," said chief prosecutor Jean-Claude Marin.

The prosecution's call for a suspended jail term was a far cry from the maximum five years allowed under the law for a conviction on charges of complicity to slander, complicity to use forgeries, dealing in stolen property and breach of trust.

But Villepin on Tuesday took aim at Sarkozy after the prosecutor's call for the heavy fine and suspended sentence.

"Nicolas Sarkozy had promised to hang me on a butcher's hook. I see that the promise has been kept," he said.

Personal vendetta

The trial opened a month ago in the courtroom where Marie Antoinette was sentenced to the guillotine in 1793, with the 55-year-old career diplomat accusing Sarkozy of pursuing a personal vendetta against him.

Sarkozy is one of the 39 civil plaintiffs in the case dubbed the Clearstream affair that has exposed the murky dealings of France's political elite with the secret services and industry.

The trial ends on Friday but judges are not expected to give their verdict before January.

An acquittal for Villepin, best known for leading the charge against the 2003 US invasion of Iraq at the United Nations, would allow him to re-launch his political career.

Once Chirac's preferred heir who also served as foreign and interior minister in his government, Villepin has become one of Sarkozy's most outspoken opponents over the past two years.

- SAPA