Chirac to be called in criminal investigation.

France: Via Times Online.

Criminal investigators are to question Jacques Chirac, the former French President, over his role in corruption scandals dating from his time as Mayor of Paris before 1995, his lawyer said over the weekend. The confirmation from Jean Veil of Mr Chirac’s imminent session with examining judges follows the lapse last week of the immunity from prosecution that he enjoyed for 12 years. Mr Chirac’s summons was regarded as inevitable because he has so far given no account of events under his 18-year tenure as mayor and Gaullist party chief, which led to suspended prison terms and heavy fines for his subordinates. Judges at Nanterre want to question him first about a false jobs scheme in which staff of the Rally for the Republic (RPR), his party, were paid by the city council. In 2004 Alain Juppé, his deputy, who later served as Prime Minister, was given a 14-month suspended prison sentence and a year’s ban from politics for his role in the affair. Between 1983 and 1998, 460 people received council salaries as members of Mr Chirac’s mayoral staff although they worked full-time for his party and other organisations, according to investigators. The “fake jobs” scheme was just one of several multimillion-pound scandals during Mr Chirac’s tenure as mayor.