Villepin back in dock again over alleged anti-Sarkozy plot

May 2, 2011, 14:51 GMT

Paris - Former French prime minister Dominique de Villepin was back in the dock Monday, as an appeal by the state prosecutor against his exoneration on charges of trying to discredit President Nicolas Sarkozy got underway in a Paris court.

The Clearstream affair, as it is called after the name of the Luxembourg-based bank with which Sarkozy was falsely linked, erupted in 2004, as Villepin and Sarkozy, both members of the same party, were preparing presidential bids.

Sarkozy's name appeared on a list of leading French politicians and businessmen falsely accused of having accounts at the bank, which was alleged to have helped individuals and companies evade taxes.

A number of the people whose names appeared on the list, including Sarkozy, who went on to become president in 2007, pressed charges.

Villepin's two co-accused - one a computer expert, the other a former head of EADS aerospace company - were among several people convicted by a lower for their involvement in the affair. Villepin, who was prime minister from 2005 to 2007, was cleared of the charges.

But the state prosecutor appealed Villepin's exoneration, saying although he wasn't involved in fabricating the list of accountholders, he should have intervened to stop a judicial inquiry into the accounts, once he knew the information to be false.

The case became a lightning rod for the emnity between Sarkozy and Villepin, which peaked at the start of the trial in 2009, when Villepin accused Sarkozy of 'relentlessly' pursuing him and Sarkozy said the 'guilty' should face justice.

Villepin has since formed his own party and is expected to announce he will run for president next year. Sarkozy is also expected to seek another five-year term.

Meanwhile, tensions between the two men appear to have eased recently.

Sarkozy withdrew as a party to the proceedings before the case went to appeal.

'I fear nothing. One fears nothing when one is innocent,' Villepin said before the opening of the trial, which was taken up with technical matters.

The case is set to run until May 26.

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