FRANCE: Villepin retrial on appeal in the Clearstream affair

Sixteen months after being acquitted in the Clearstream affair, Dominique de Villepin appear again in court on Monday on the occasion of his trial before the Court of Appeal of Paris, which promises to be more peaceful because of the defection the Head of State.

"I fear nothing and no one fears nothing when you're innocent," said Sunday the former Prime Minister, saying "perfectly calm this time."

In this case, is accused Dominique de Villepin, Imad Lahoud and the mathematician and the former head of EADS, Jean-Louis Gergorin of falsifying bank listings from the Luxembourg clearing house Clearstream, to to believe that several personalities, including Nicolas Sarkozy, held secret accounts abroad.

The case came to light in the summer of 2004, but not until January 2006, while the statement trampled, that Nicolas Sarkozy had a civil party, promising to hang the culprits to "a hook block.The investigation was then conducted with great fanfare by means judges Henri Pons and Jean-Marie d'Huy.

Convinced that Dominique de Villepin was the instigator of the plot, they had returned to Corrections late 2008 to include "complicity in slanderous denunciation".

After a month of trial, Dominique de Villepin had been acquitted, January 28, 2010, by the Paris Criminal Court, as the journalist Denis Robert.

The auditor Florian Bourges, who presented the Clearstream customer lists to Imad Lahoud, was sentenced to four months suspended sentence. Jean-Louis Gergorin had been sentenced to fifteen months imprisonment and 40,000 euros fine and Imad Lahoud eighteen months in prison and 40,000 euros fine.

These last two have appealed their conviction. Regarding the former minister, the prosecutor who undertook to appeal.

Twenty plaintiffs also challenged the trial decision.The most notable absentee will be Nicolas Sarkozy who has renounced his continuing Dominique de Villepin appealed.

During the four weeks of trial - the hearings will conclude on May 26 and the decision will be taken under advisement for several months - nine witnesses will inform the court of appeal, presided over by Christiane Beauquis. Among them, General Philippe Rondot, who investigated the time listings, the former head of the DST, Pierre Bousquet de Florian, or the magistrate Renaud van Ruymbeke.