Ex-president of France Jacques Shirak will judge embezzlement and bribes

Former French President Jacques Shirak will appear before the trial not only for embezzlement of public funds, but also for corruption. On Monday, a bailiff of the city, Nanter Jacques, signed an order to transfer the case to a correctional court on charges of bribery, RIA Novosti reports with reference to the French media.

According to the investigation, Shirak, who, before the presidential post, was the mayor of Paris for more than 18 years, created seven fictitious jobs in the administration in order to finance his party "Association in support of the republic" (RPR). Earlier, the city prosecutor Nanter said that the case should be closed for lack of corpus delicti. However, the judicial investigator does not share the point of view of the prosecution. In this case, Shirak is accused of bribery.

A few months ago, another case was sent to the correctional court about the creation of 21 fictitious workplace in the capital's city hall. These places were also paid from the city budget, and the Parisian investigator brought Shirak the charges of embezzlement of public funds and abuse of trust.

The plaintiff in the second case was the Parisian City Hall, but the deputies agreed with Shirak and the ruling party "Union for the People’s Movement" that the administration would take a lawsuit. In exchange, Shirak and his party agreed to pay the city 2.2 million euros spent on payment of fictitious places. However, this agreement did not save the former president from the court.

Then the prosecutor also insisted at the closure of the case, but the judicial investigator decided to transfer him to court. The process in this case is assigned on March 7, both cases must be considered on it. Shirak himself has repeatedly spoke about the insolvency of the accusations and assured that the “false” jobs were really required by the Parisian administration.