Two a penny

.
The Clearstream trial that has held France in its grip the past few weeks came to a head Wednesday as former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and General Philippe Rondot, a former top intelligence official, faced off in the courtroom. Details of the exchange are not expected until later in the evening.

&raquo Special Report on France&#039s trial of the decade
&raquo Who&#039s who in the trial
&raquo How a finance trial turned into a major political scandal
&raquo A glossary of terms in the Clearstream saga
&raquo From Ben Barka to Elf, justice turns a blind eye to political elites
De Villepin, who served as France’s interior minister between March 2004 and May 2005, stands accused of seeking to derail Nicolas Sarkozy’s presidential campaign by linking him to a corruption scandal.

On Monday, key witness General Rondot appeared in court to discuss his notes , which claim that de Villepin clearly mentioned Sarkozy — then vying for the Elys&eacutee — in connection to Clearstream at a meeting held on January 7, 2004. The trial, which began September 21, has been marked by contradictory testimony.

them correspondent Catherine Norris Trent reported that the two men were expected to stand side by side before judges aiming to iron these inconsistencies out. This, however, contradicts de Villepin statements last week, when he took the stand and flatly denied the notes were an accurate reflection of the conversation. Questions likely to be explored include when exactly de Villepin first heard Sarkozy name in connection with the affair and whether or not he said he was passing on orders from Chirac. .

The legal confrontation was called for by de Villepin lawyers, who Norris Trent says want to make sure that their client doesn&rsquot come out of this examining embarrassed because of these discrepancies between his evidence and that of General Rondot.

Clearstream trial – Dominique de Villepin – Nicolas Sarkozy
.

The trial is scheduled to end on October 23 and judges are expected to take several months to render a verdict

.Swiss authorities have denied a request to release film director Roman Polanski on bail, following his arrest in September after fleeing sentencing for having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977.
“In our view, there is still a very high risk that he will flee and that a release on bail or other measures after a release cannot guarantee Polanski’s presence in the extradition procedure,” Justice Ministry spokesman Folco Galli said.
–

.

.
AFP – France served notice Sunday that it no longer supported Guinea leader Moussa Dadis Camara after scores of people were killed in an opposition rally in the capital Conakry last week.

Something terrible and savage happened.

It seems to me that we can no longer work with Dadis Camara and that there has to be an international intervention, he said, adding that France was pressing West African leaders from regional bloc ECOWAS to engage. We cannot accept it, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in an interview to RTL radio.

We can no longer work with Dadis Camara, international intervention is needed.

Dadis Camara said Sunday he bears no responsibility for the September 28 massacre in which the United Nations said more than 150 people were killed…

The junta says 56 civilians were killed, but the Guinean Human Rights Organisation has claimed that at least 157 people were killed and 1,253 wounded in the crackdown.French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner
The violence erupted after thousands of people had gathered at Conakry’s main stadium to protest against the prospect of Camara becoming a candidate in presidential elections set for January 31.

Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore, tasked by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to act as a facilitator to ease tensions in Guinea, is to arrive in Conakry on Monday, his foreign minister Alain Bedouma Yoda told AFP. The United Nations has put the toll at more than 150. .

Kouchner said France was pressing for a role in Guinea for ECOWAS, whose current chairman is Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua.

Bernard Kouchner – France – Guinea Conakry – Moussa Dadis Camara

.
AFP – An Air France pilots’ union will present a report to investigators this week blaming defective air speed probes for the crash of Air France Flight 447 over the Atlantic, a newspaper reported Sunday.

The pilots’ report contradicts the findings of the French agency leading the investigation, the BEA, which has said that the speed monitors were a factor, but not the leading cause of the crash that left 228 people dead on June 1. .

The union points the guilty finger to the plane’s manufacturer Airbus, Air France, civil aviation authorities and the European Aviation Safety Agency among others for under-estimating the problems with the sensors.

Just before dropping off radar screens it had emitted a series of automatic warning signals indicating systems failures.

Air France Flight 447 was flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris during stormy weather when it crashed into a remote area of the Atlantic, about 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) off Brazil’s coast.

Such an event cannot be reduced to a single cause, said Gerard Arnoux, president of the Spaf pilots’ union.

The Airbus A330′s black box flight recorders have not been found, but French investigators said in a report that the faulty speed sensors were not the only explanation for the accident.

The crash was the worst in Air France’s 75-year history.

But there is an unchallengeable truth that we must insist on: without the breakdown of the pitot tubes, the accident wouldn’t have happened, Arnoux told the newspaper.

Both the European air safety agency and Airbus advised airlines after the disaster to replace the type of pitot tubes used on the doomed jet with a more reliable model made by a US firm.

AF 447 crash – airplane crash – aviation – Brazil – France – investigation

.French teen Alize Cornet has upset Australian 15th seed Samantha Stosur in Beijing to advance to the second round of the China Open. .
Cornet did not fold under the pressure, making just nine unforced errors throughout the match to Stosur’s 23 and sealing the victory 6-3 in the third.
The French teen broke Stosur in the 10th game to take the first set 6-4, but the 25-year-old Australian, ranked 15th in the world, battled back in the second to even the match at one set all.
The pair traded service breaks several times in the first set to bring it to a tie breaker, during which the Italian used her experience to best advantage, taking some of the pace off and forcing a forehand error to win the set.
In other first round action, Italy’s Flavia Pennetta, the 10th seed, fought back an early challenge from Chinese wild card entrant Han Xinyun to win in straight sets, 7-6 (7-2), 6-2.
Third seed Venus Williams was due to take centre court for her first round match against Russia’s Vera Dushevina.
Pennetta, a US Open quarter-finalist, took charge of the match when she broke Han for a 3-2 lead in the second set and never looked back, closing out the match with an overhead smash.
Maria Sharapova, who won the Pan Pacific Open in Japan on Saturday, has a first round bye in Beijing.
Top seed Dinara Safina will face Italy’s Roberta Vinci in the first round, while second seed Serena Williams will take on Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi.
The men’s main draw gets under way on Monday, with Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Roddick leading the charge. Jelena Jankovic, who was due to play in Beijing, withdrew from the final against Sharapova with an arm injury.
-

.

&raquo Special Report on France&#039s trial of the decade
&raquo Who&#039s who in the trial
&raquo How a finance trial turned into a major political scandal
&raquo A glossary of terms in the Clearstream saga
&raquo From Ben Barka to Elf, justice turns a blind eye to political elites
Former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin appears in court on Wednesday to testify on his role in the Clearstream scandal.

I am happy to bring my contribution to the emergence of truth in a case where lies and manipulation have clouded the truth, Villepin told reporters before entering the courtroom. Sarkozy’s name was added to a forged list of people allegedly holding secret bank accounts at Luxembourg-based clearing house, Clearstream .

De Villepin faces charges charge of trying to undermine Nicolas Sarkozy’s campaign to win the presidency in 2007 by implicating him in a corruption scandal.

The crux of his innocence or guilt depends on whether he knew about the forgery, and whether he in fact gave the order to commit the forgery.

The former prime minister, whose testimony is the lynchpin in the whole case, had struck a defiant note on the first day of the trial, saying: I will emerge from this free and with my reputation cleared, in the name of the French people. . In a brief interrogation in the court Tuesday he repeated that he never had any idea of, nor held in [his] hands, any falsified lists. He will most likely get a ban on holding office, which would be a major blow since he still had political ambitions.

Bythem Top Story aired on 30 September 2009
According to them Catherine Norris-Trent, who is covering the trial, No one believes de Villepin will be sentenced to prison. Even more important than the verdict, if it can be proved he is lying, his reputation is ruined.

But even if the court did not sentence him at all, says Norris-Trent, the maximum damage has already been done to de Villepin.

The courtroom has already seen much drama . People are saying that is what the prosecution is going for, she said.

Clearstream trial – Nicolas Sarkozy
. Monday proceedings included an uncontrollable screaming match between two key players in the case, Jean-Louis Gergorin (former executive VP of French corporation EADS) and Imad Lahoud, who worked under Gergorin as a mathematician and is accused of having committed the actual forgery

.
AFP – French prosecutors said Tuesday they have called for judges to drop corruption charges against former president Jacques Chirac, who is accused of misusing city funds when he was Paris mayor.

A French judge wrapped up a probe in April into allegations that municipal funds were used to give fake ghost jobs to members of Chirac’s RPR party while he was mayor of the capital from 1977 to 1995, officials said.

The now 77-year-old Chirac was charged in November 2007 in the case along with five former city hall chiefs of staff and a dozen other people, becoming the first former French president to be put under judicial investigation.

Judge Xaviere Simeoni now has until the end of October to decide whether to send the case to trial.

But the Paris prosecutor’s office said Tuesday it has called for the case to be thrown out, arguing there was insufficient evidence of misuse of funds after 1992, and that the statute of limitations had expired for prior events.

Chirac stood down as mayor of Paris in 1995 when he became president. . He lost his presidential immunity from prosecution after President Nicolas Sarkozy’s election in May 2007.

corruption – France – Jacques Chirac
.

Former aides to Chirac have defended him against allegations that he presided over a system of illegal money-raising for his party, the Rally for the Republic (RPR)

.Fifth seed Gael Monfils and fellow Frenchman Richard Gasquet have both overcome jetlag to bolt into the second round of the Malaysian Open.
Monfils, trying to back up the title he won last weekend in Metz, France before boarding a flight to Kuala Lumpur, dispatched Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-2).
The unseeded Gasquet was relentless against Romanian Victor Crivoi 6-1, 6-2.
Gasquet said he had to fight through his fatigue after the flight from Europe.
The number 47 moved into a struggle for the quarter-finals when he plays in the second round against Joacham Johansson after the Swede upset eighth seed Lleyton Hewitt.
“I haven’t adapted to the time change, but I hope tonight I can sleep better. “I played a good match despite waking up at 2:00 am (local time). .
Monfils, 23, fired nine aces in his victory over Istomin, breaking three times while losing his own serve in equal measure.
The French seed, ranked 13th, improved to 29-13 on the season as he next faces Argentine Martin Vassello Arguello.
-

.Swimmer Ian Thorpe has dropped a defamation case against a French newspaper that claimed he was a drug cheat.
Thorpe was suing the daily sports paper L’Equipe, its publisher, and journalist Damien Ressiot over an article published in March 2007.
The paper claimed Thorpe gave a urine sample in May 2006 which showed abnormal levels of testosterone and a luteinising hormone.
The Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority and world swimming body FINA later found there was no evidence to support claims Thorpe had used performance enhancing drugs. .
– ABC/AAP

.
The Clearstream trial that is now under way in the French courts has again shed light on France political rivalries, state secrets and the sometimes shadowy links between the French state and its captains of industry. In this latest affair, which some media pundits are calling Watergate &agrave la Fran&ccedilaise, former Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin is accused of falsely accusing President Nicolas Sarkozy of receiving kickbacks in connection with the 1991 sale of Taiwanese frigates when the two were political adversaries fighting for control of their party ahead of the 2007 presidential election.

Normal
0
21

false
false
false

MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

st1:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }

/* Style Definitions */
table. .MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:”Tableau Normal”
mso-style-parent:”"
font-size:10. French politicians convicted of wrongdoing have in the past been treated with leniency, says a September 20 piece in The New York Times by Matthew Saltmarsh. But he may have little to fear.

Saltmarsh may have a point.

The Ben Barka affair: France and Morocco in troubled waters

Moroccan opposition leader Mehdi Ben Barka in 1959.

Of the many high-profile scandals that have plagued the French political elite in past decades, very few high officials have been severely sanctioned &ndash while their less-visible associates sometimes get a raw deal. His supporters never heard from him again.Moroccan opposition leader Mehdi Ben Barka, who sought exile in France after having been condemned to death in his home country, was kidnapped in Paris on October 29, 1965 by two French policemen. But as for determining any French complicity in the affair, the investigation fell short: the examining magistrates ran into resistance citing security issues and reasons of state.

The French-led investigation shed the spotlight on various Moroccan protagonists, in particular on a General Oufkir, a loyal servant of King Hassan II.

Finally, on June 7, 1967, one of the French officers who took part in the Ben Barka kidnapping was sentenced to six years in prison another member of the counter-intelligence services was sentenced to eight years.

Finally, on June 7, 1967, one of the French officers who took part in the Ben Barka kidnapping was sentenced to six years in prison another member of the counter-intelligence services was sentenced to eight years. To date, no member of the French government or top official has been investigated in the affair. Documents from French counter-intelligence and the US Central Intelligence Agency, as well as the testimony of a former member of the French secret service decommissioned in 2000, cited the involvement of both the prime minister and the French president offices, partially lifting the veil on the dubious links between the Moroccan royal family and the French state. In the process, Eva Joly, the judge in charge of the inquiry, uncovered a vast network of corruption, implicating politicians as well as the heads of major corporations.

The Elf scandal, a financial imbroglio

Roland Dumas and Judge Eva JolyA legal inquiry was launched in 1994 involving the alleged cash injections into a struggling textile branch of the Elf oil giant. Joly, however, focused on evidence of the clandestine financing of political parties in France and abroad and the hundreds of millions of euros that were paid as bribes and kickbacks to politicians, businessmen and intermediaries.

The ramifications of this network and its financial interlinks were extremely complex. The case against Strauss-Kahn was dismissed, but Dumas was sentenced to serve six months in prison as well as given a two-year suspended sentence.

Investigations were launched into the possible roles played by Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a former minister of industry, and Roland Dumas (main photo above), former foreign affairs minister and president of France Constitutional council.

Taiwanese frigates &ndash and policy, murder, corruption

Renaud Van Ruymbeke was charged with investigating the Taiwanese frigate affair in 2001.

Meanwhile, Dumas&rsquo former mistress, Christine Deviers-Joncour, along with Elf CEO Loik le Floch-Prigent and the firm director-general, Alfred Sirven, were all handed heavy fines and served time in prison.4 billion.4 billion.

What follows is like something out of a James Bond film, involving secrets of state, diplomatic affairs, corruption and even murder &ndash 10 people involved with the frigate sale in one form or another disappeared mysteriously.

Judge Renaud Van Ruymbeke, charged with the investigation, managed to gather evidence against several key players in a web of corruption in Taiwan as well as China. But in France, all attempts to find out who received commissions from the sale were derailed for reasons of national security. All demands for the declassification of documents were in vain, as three successive economic ministers, Laurent Fabius, Francis Mer and Thierry Breton, were opposed to their release.

In 2006, former defence minister Alain Richard accused former President Fran&ccedilois Mitterand and his prime minister (1993-1995), Edouard Balladur, of involvement.

The case was dismissed in its entirety in 2008.

Angolagate: the ripe markets of a civil war

Charles Pasqua on his arrival at court in October 2008.Of all the legal and political scandals of recent years, that involving the sale of weapons to Angola &ndash still under judicial review &ndash holds a special significance.

During the 1990s, significant arms traffic was funnelled to Angola, a country in the grip of a bloody civil war. Some 40 people were accused of participation in a trafficking ring worth an estimated &euro790 million or to have taken bribes from those involved. Charles Pasqua, a former minister of the interior who was at the same time fending off accusations in connection with six other legal cases, and Jean-Charles Marchiani, a regional official, found themselves among the accused. The civil judges in the case have recommended a three-year suspended sentence for Pasqua and 18 months for Marchiani. A judgment will be rendered on October 27.

Angolagate – business – Clearstream – Dominique de Villepin – French politics – justice – Nicolas Sarkozy – scandal