FRANCE:Former French prime minister Dominique de Villepin was placed under formal investigation yesterday over his alleged attempt to smear rival Nicolas Sarkozy before the recent presidential election.
Mr de Villepin (53) is accused of "complicity in making false accusations" by judges investigating the scandal known as the Clearstream affair. He was mis en examen, the first step towards criminal charges, after evidence suggested he was responsible for leaking false information claiming Mr Sarkozy had a secret bank account in Luxembourg.
At the time of the smear campaign, Mr de Villepin and Mr Sarkozy (then the interior minister) were bitter rivals to succeed president Jacques Chirac.
Mr de Villepin was summoned to appear before judges the day after he returned from holiday in Tahiti. He arrived at the Palais de Justice in Paris looking tanned and smiling. After appearing before judges, he repeated his denial.
"I say again this morning that at no moment did I order an inquiry into political personalities, that at no moment did I take part in any political manoeuvring whatsoever," he said as he left the court. "I acted in the face of . . . threats concerning our economic interests."
Mr de Villepin is reported to have believed he was in the clear after being questioned for 17 hours by judges last December. He was said to have been shaken by raids on his Paris home and office this month while he was in St Tropez.
Police officers and magistrates acted on new evidence, forcing the door of the family flat and seizing documents and computers. Mr de Villepin flew back to Paris where investigators demanded his mobile phone and wallet. They also searched his car and his suitcase.
He has vigorously denied "untruthful allegations" against him and insists he "never sought to investigate or compromise any political personality in the Clearstream affair".
The scandal centres on claims that in 2004 Mr de Villepin - on the instructions of Mr Chirac - ordered two investigations into documents purporting to show that Mr Sarkozy had a secret account in the Luxembourg-based bank Clearstream. An anonymous letter sent to a judge claimed these accounts contained kickbacks from defence deals. The documents were subsequently found to be false.
Mr de Villepin has admitted asking the secret services and a retired intelligence officer to carry out parallel investigations. However, he denies ordering the targeting of Mr Sarkozy, or that he was instructed to do so by president Chirac. He was put under formal investigation, which can lead to trial but does not imply guilt, after destroyed documents were recovered from the intelligence officer's computer.
Mr de Villepin was the foreign minister in president Chirac's government before he became prime minister in 2005. He served as prime minister until Mr Sarkozy won the presidential election in May.
His lawyers said he wanted to study the 27 volumes of evidence before deciding whether to contest the judges' authority on the basis that his actions were part of his ministerial responsibility. Under French law such actions must be tried by a special court of MPs and magistrates - (Guardian News service)