Paris: French prosecutors will appeal a court decision to acquit former premier Dominique de Villepin of plotting to smear Nicolas Sarkozy to torpedo his presidential bid, state prosecutor Jean-Claude Marin said on Friday.
"All has not emerged in this case. There is still scope for a part of the truth to emerge ... I have decided to lodge an appeal," Marin told Europe 1 radio, a day after Villepin was cleared in the high-profile trial.
Marin said it was "surprising" that the court had cleared Villepin, a former diplomat who speaks flawless English and who had also served as foreign minister.
Villepin told France 2 television late Thursday that he could "not for a moment" imagine an appeal, as the court had left "no doubt" of his innocence.
In an early reaction on Friday, he said that Sarkozy "is continuing his vendetta”.
The acquittal was a triumph 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.
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.
Sarkozy`s name was on the list and the French leader alleges the scandal was fabricated to tarnish him ahead of his party`s nomination for the 2007 presidential vote, which he won.
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.
Three other defendants were convicted: ex-aerospace executive Jean-Louis Gergorin who admitted to leaking the fake list to investigators, Imad Lahoud who confessed to adding Sarkozy`s name to the list and accountant Florian Bourges, who obtained data on account holders that were later falsified.
Journalist Denis Robert, who introduced Bourges to Lahoud, was acquitted.
Bureau Report
