Ex-prime minister cleared in slander trial
PARIS - Former prime minister Dominique de Villepin was acquitted yesterday of involvement in a plot to smear his main political rival, President Nicolas Sarkozy, with fraudulent documents suggesting Sarkozy was corrupt.
The judgment, barring appeals, brought an end to several years of high drama involving accusations of skullduggery in the gilded salons of Paris politics, fictitious bank accounts forged by an accountant who wanted to be a spy, and a gullible aerospace executive with ties to French intelligence.
The verdict absolved Villepin of wrongdoing. It provided a significant boost to his uphill campaign to resume a political career whose momentum was broken by Sarkozy’s victory in the 2007 election, and the charges that Villepin was part of a plot to discredit his rival as the two men angled to succeed President Jacques Chirac.
In a statement, Villepin said he harbored no rancor toward Sarkozy.
Sarkozy said he had no plans to appeal. He was closely tied to the case; he had vowed revenge and joined the prosecution as a private complainant.
