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Chirac faces Paris scandal judge | Chirac faces Paris scandal judge |
(about 2 hours later) | |
Former French President Jacques Chirac is being questioned by a magistrate probing a party funding scandal dating back to his time as mayor of Paris. | Former French President Jacques Chirac is being questioned by a magistrate probing a party funding scandal dating back to his time as mayor of Paris. |
Mr Chirac, 74, is being interviewed as an assisted witness, which means he could eventually face criminal charges. | |
The inquiry is looking into a fake jobs scheme that was used to finance Mr Chirac's conservative RPR party during his time as mayor in 1977-1995. | The inquiry is looking into a fake jobs scheme that was used to finance Mr Chirac's conservative RPR party during his time as mayor in 1977-1995. |
Mr Chirac has denied wrongdoing, saying party funding lacked legal clarity. | |
His lawyer has said he will not face questioning over any other scandals. | His lawyer has said he will not face questioning over any other scandals. |
Mr Chirac still enjoys presidential immunity in the investigation into the death of a French judge in Djibouti and in the so-called Clearstream affair, regarding an alleged attempt to smear Nicolas Sarkozy before he succeeded Mr Chirac as president. | Mr Chirac still enjoys presidential immunity in the investigation into the death of a French judge in Djibouti and in the so-called Clearstream affair, regarding an alleged attempt to smear Nicolas Sarkozy before he succeeded Mr Chirac as president. |
The immunity does not apply to the period before he became president, when he was mayor of Paris. | The immunity does not apply to the period before he became president, when he was mayor of Paris. |
Town hall scam | |
Judge Alain Philibeaux questioned the former president at his offices on Paris's Left Bank on Thursday, judicial officials said. Mr Chirac's lawyer was present. | |
The inquiry focuses on illegal payments given to members of Mr Chirac's party while he was mayor. | The inquiry focuses on illegal payments given to members of Mr Chirac's party while he was mayor. |
The status of assisted witness falls between that of simple witness and formal investigation, and implies that there is some evidence against the person questioned. | |
The former president's close ally and one-time prime minister, Alain Juppe, was convicted in the scandal in 2004 and banned from politics for a year. | |
Prosecutors said housing officials received bribes from businessmen and that some of the money went to Mr Chirac's Rally for the Republic (RPR). | |
In a statement published in the French daily Le Monde, Mr Chirac said he found it "very normal" to answer questions about the party-funding affair. | |
He said there had been "seven years of tentative moves" between an initial law in 1988 and a third in 1995 to "arrive at a good judicial framework" on political funding. |