Jacques Chirac once again before the Court

The former president Jacques Chirac found himself once again before the magistrate's court for supposed 21 fictitious actions

The former president Jacques Chirac found himself once again before the magistrate's court for "supposed 21 fictitious actions" at the Paris city hall but benefits from a dismissal of the charges for the primary indictment" for forging the public documents", announced on Friday to AFP news service.

Mr Chirac is the first former president to know such a fate.

Jacques Chirac, according to the communiqué assertions, - is serene and dedicated in establishing in bringing the truth before the court that none of 21 actions for which he was sent before the justice does constitute a fictitious employment. - There are at least nine persons on account of whom Jacques Chirac was sent before the magistrates' court of Paris, and nine others benefiting from a dismissal of the charges, out of whom Bernard Bled, the former General Secretary of the city hall, specifies the judicial source.

The judge considered that the facts were prescribed for at least two persons, Robert Pandraud and Daniel Naftalski, as reported by the same source. Even though the name of the former president (1995-2007) appears in numerous affairs, the affair of the representatives is the only one for whom Jacques Chirac was indicted.

Shielded during 12 years as the head of the State, Chirac consequently once again became common citizen, by becoming indicted on November 21st, 2007 for "misuse of public funds" in this file of presumed acts of kindness paid by the cabinet of the mayor of Paris, armchair-occupied by Mr Chirac from 1977 till 1995.

The investigation led by the magistrate aims at presumably 35 fictitious actions over a period 1983 - 1998, in the beginning of the Chirac's first three years of second mandate in the Council chamber, followed by his successor, Jean Tiberi. Among the presumed beneficiaries of these actions possibly as a possible key figure could serve a former prefect, suspected of having benefited from a chauffeur paid by the cabinet of the mayor of Paris. This would be the only contract signed by Jacques Chirac in hand.

In its indictment of the general dismissal of charges, the public prosecutor's office considered that the previous facts in 1992 come in order and that the investigation did not allow characterizing the malpractice for the posterior facts. Besides the former president, about twenty persons among whom five former cabinet directors of the city hall were indicted: Robert Pandraud, Daniel Naftalski, Michel Roussin, Rémy Chardon and Bernard Bled.