International   

Villepin residence raided in Clearstream affair

Vaiju Naravane

— PHOTO: AFP

The former French Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin, in this April 2006 file photo.

Paris: Former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin is suspected of being a prime mover in a 2004 scandal that sought to besmirch the reputation of current President Nicolas Sarkozy and destroy his presidential chances.

Judges looking into the so-called Clearstream affair were following up new evidence that Mr. de Villepin may have sought to defame Mr Sarkozy and scuttle his bid for the presidency, justice officials said. The Clearstream affair came at a time when Mr de Villepin was serving as Prime Minister under President Jacques Chirac while Mr. Sarkozy was Interior Minister. Mr Sarkozy was cordially disliked by both men who saw him as a political rival to be removed.

Investigators raided the home of Mr de Villepin on Thursday after fresh evidence on the scandal came to light. Judges Jean-Marie d’Huy and Henri Pons visited Mr de Villepin’s flat in a fashionable part of Paris in the afternoon, accompanied by police and a representative of the prosecutor’s office, and conducted a six-and-a-half hour search of the premises. The new evidence against Mr. de Villepin was widely leaked to the press earlier on Thursday and is based on documents retrieved from the computer of the retired intelligence chief, Philippe Rondot. These appear to back up claims that in 2004, Mr de Villepin encouraged the leaking of information falsely implicating Mr Sarkozy in a fabricated financial scandal, justice officials said.

The documents also suggest Mr de Villepin was acting with the clear support of Mr Chirac. Both Mr de Villepin and Mr Chirac have denied involvement in the affair, which revolves around a fake list of account-holders at the Clearstream Bank of Luxembourg, who supposedly benefited from illegal commissions from arms sales. Judges in charge of the investigation are looking into allegations that Mr de Villepin and Mr. Chirac may have tried to secretly publicise the list to wreck Mr Sarkozy’s presidential hopes. Mr. Chirac, who handed over power to Mr Sarkozy in May, has refused to speak to the judges, arguing that in this matter, he is still covered by presidential immunity. Mr de Villepin, who also left office in May, on Thursday denounced the new “untruthful allegations”, insisting in a statement that he “never sought to investigate or compromise any political personality in the Clearstream affair.” He was interviewed as a witness in the case in December 2006, but has now asked for “assisted witness” status to allow him to “properly defend himself”.

Under French law, an “assisted witness” is a person against whom there are preliminary suspicions of wrongdoing and who has the right to be interviewed in the presence of a lawyer and to have access to the judge’s findings.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Villepin residence raided in Clearstream affair
‘Cambridge connection’ to the U.K. terror plot
Rajapaksa expresses solidarity
Discuss nuclear deal in Parliament, says Vajpayee
8 Sri Lanka soldiers killed

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu