Chirac escapes court

By S.P. | PARIS

MANY a sceptic has long doubted that Jacques Chirac would ever see the inside of a courtroom, let alone a jail. Sure enough, late on September 5th, a Paris judge ruled that the trial of the former French president for corruption, dating to his time as the city's mayor in 1977-95, could go ahead this week in Mr Chirac's absence due to his ill health. The first French head of state to face criminal charges since Marshall Philippe Pétain will now do so without enduring the humiliation of a court appearance.

Mr Chirac is charged on two counts of “misappropriation of public funds”, using tax-payers' money to pay workers who were in reality toiling away for his political party. While he was mayor of Paris, the ambitious young politician built up his party into a formidable electoral machine which secured him the presidency in 1995. During his two terms as president, until 2007, he enjoyed immunity from prosecution.

Of all the various corruption cases that investigating judges have tried to bring to court over the years, this is the only one outstanding. It concerns a total of just 28 “fake jobs”, and nine co-defendants. The others have all been dropped, because of the statute of limitations or the immunity rule. In theory, if convicted, Mr Chirac could face up to ten years in jail and a fine of €150,000.

It has already been established in court that party employees were on the Paris town-hall payroll. Alain Juppé, the current foreign minister, and Mr Chirac's closest associate at the time, was convicted in 2004 in one fake-jobs case. Last year, Mr Chirac himself reimbursed the city of Paris €500,000 ($700,000), and the ruling UMP party paid out a further €1.7m, a decision that prompted the Socialist-ruled town hall to withdraw as plaintiff in the case currently going to trial. Mr Chirac has said all along that he was ready to explain himself in court, and that he has “done nothing wrong”.

Over the past few months, however, the ex-president's health does seem to have taken a turn for the worse. His lawyer said in court today that he suffers from “severe memory problems” leading to “significant errors of judgment and reasoning”. Mr Chirac had a stroke in 2005, while still president, and it is thought that his current neurological problems could stem from this incident.

Before the summer, the Gaullist ex-president was captured on film with François Hollande, front-runner to win the Socialist presidential nomination, declaring in all seriousness that he would vote for him in 2012. Images of Mr Chirac during the summer, on holiday in Saint-Tropez, showed the frail 78-year-old man leaning on his bodyguards to steady himself as he walked.

It now looks less likely than ever that Mr Chirac will be held fully to account for what happened on his watch. His lawyers will be able to speak for him in court, but he will not have to answer questions directly. Strangely, this does not seem to trouble the French too much. Since leaving office, the former president has become a figure of affection, hugely popular in the polls, and something of a grandfather to the nation. This has dampened popular appetite to see him go to court. Earlier this year, before his trial was suspended on a technicality, 56% thought that Mr Chirac should be judged like any ordinary citizen, down from 72% two years ago.

Yet, as Jean-Pierre Dintilhac, a former Paris public prosecutor, told French radio this week, the real scandal is not that an ill man should be excused from attending his own trial. It is that it has taken such a long time for the French justice system, despite persistent efforts by investigating magistrates, to get the former president anywhere near a courtroom.