Paris: A French court on Thursday acquitted former
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin of charges of plotting to
smear Nicolas Sarkozy to sabotage his presidential bid.
The court ruled there were no grounds to convict the
56-year-old politician of complicity to slander Sarkozy in
2004, when the two men were angling to succeed president
Jacques Chirac.
The acquittal was an outright victory for Villepin in the
five-year legal saga and was seen as bolstering his chances of
a political comeback as he sets his sights on the 2012
presidential vote.
Villepin showed no emotion while the verdict was being
read in the courtroom as his wife, daughter and son looked on.
The verdict coincidentally came on Sarkozy`s 55th
birthday and while the president was chairing a meeting at the
Elysee palace to agree on measures to curb France`s ballooning
deficit.
The complex case centres on a list -- later proved to
have been fabricated -- of account holders at the Clearstream
financial clearing house who allegedly took bribes from the
sale of French warships to Taiwan.
"It was not proven that Dominique de Villepin knew that
the lists were fake," ruled presiding judge Dominique Pauthe.
Villepin was cleared on all four counts in the case
dubbed France`s trial of the decade: complicity to slander, to
use forgeries, dealing in stolen property and breach of trust.
PTI
