FRANCE:Former French president Jacques Chirac was yesterday questioned by a judge over a party financing scandal dating back to his time as Paris mayor, the first time in modern France a former president has been quizzed in a corruption inquiry.
Two months after he stepped down and his presidential immunity ended, Mr Chirac faced investigators who have been waiting for 12 years to question him over allegations that money was siphoned off the Paris city hall budget to pay his party workers. It is the most serious of a string of potential legal problems facing him.
Mr Chirac was not formally under investigation but could later face charges if judges find signs of a criminal offence.
- (Guardian service)