Ex-French President Convicted of Graft

Jacques Chirac, pictured in November 2010. (Agence France-Presse/Getty Images)

DECEMBER 16, 2011
By INTI LANDAURO
The Wall Street Journal

PARIS—A French court on Thursday sentenced former President Jacques Chirac to a two-year suspended jail term after his conviction on graft charges, the first time a former head of state has been convicted by a court in the post-World War II era.

Mr. Chirac, who had denied the accusations ahead of the criminal trial, won't appeal the ruling, his lawyer Georges Kiejman said.

Mr. Chirac, 79 years old, who ruled France for two terms from 1995 to 2007, didn't attend the trial after judges granted him a dispensation on the grounds that he is suffering from severe memory loss. He could have faced a sentence of as long as 10 years.

The charges brought against Mr. Chirac related to his stint as mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995, when he allegedly added dozens of people to the city council's payroll who weren't actually working for the city.

The court considered only 28 alleged fake jobs; others were left out of the trial for lack of evidence or because too much time had passed since the alleged hiring.

The court found that in 19 out of 28 cases studied, the jobs were "entirely or partially fictitious."

"Mr. Chirac failed in the obligation of being forthright that applies to people in public office," said Judge Dominique Pauthe in his verdict.

Mr. Kiejman said Mr. Chirac didn't benefit personally from what happened.

The trial started after the former president left power; he had been granted immunity while in office.

"I hope the conviction won't change anything of the deep affection French people still feel for Jacques Chirac," Mr. Kiejman said.

Mr. Chirac's Vietnamese-born foster daughter, Anh Dao, who was in the courtroom when the conviction was announced, said the ruling shows that French justice is harsh and independent.

"With great pain, we have to accept a decision that is too strict," she told reporters.

Mr. Chirac is the first former president of France to be convicted since Philippe Pétain was sentenced to death in 1945 for supporting Nazi Germany during World War II.

Pétain's sentence was later changed to life imprisonment and he died in jail in 1951.

President Nicolas Sarkozy's office said it had no comment on the decision, saying it wasn't the president's role to comment.