Prosecutors ask court to drop case against Chirac

PARIS — The Paris prosecutor’s office has asked a court to drop a case against former President Jacques Chirac and others accused in an alleged corruption scandal dating back to his 1977-1995 tenure as Paris mayor, a judicial official said Tuesday.

The request has been delivered to investigating judge Xaviere Simeoni, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the case is ongoing. Simeoni must now decide whether to follow the advice — or whether Chirac and more than 40 others must stand trial.

A judge filed preliminary embezzlement charges against Chirac in 2007, after he left the presidency and no longer had judicial immunity.

Chirac, 76, was the first former president of modern France to face such a legal step. He has insisted he did nothing wrong. Chirac and dozens of others, including two of his former aides, have had preliminary charges lodged against them in this probe.

Judges have been looking into several cases of suspected misuse of public money and other alleged wrongdoing during Chirac’s time as mayor of Paris, which helped him secure the presidency in 1995.

Simeoni has been investigating whether people in Chirac’s circle were given sham jobs as advisers and paid by Paris City Hall, even though they weren’t working for it.

The request from the prosecutor’s office to drop the case said that investigations turned up no proof of willful wrongdoing, and said also that the statue of limitations had expired for events before 1992, according to Le Monde newspaper’s Web site.

Chirac was mayor of Paris from 1977-95 and president of France from 1995 until 2007. In an article published by Le Monde newspaper months after he left office, Chirac denied any wrongdoing and said he had legitimately hired aides to help him with his multiple responsibilities.

Chirac noted that aside from running Paris City Hall, he also served simultaneously as a lawmaker, as head of his political party and as prime minister from 1986-88.

“Never were Paris municipal resources devoted to ambitions other than acting for the Parisians. There was never personal enrichment,” Chirac wrote.

Under French law, preliminary charges mean the judge has determined there is strong evidence to suggest involvement in a crime. It gives the investigator time to pursue the inquiry before deciding whether to send the suspects for trial or drop the case.

Suspicions of corruption and nepotism, mostly dating from his time as Paris mayor, dogged Chirac’s presidency.

But while judges closed in on those in his circle — his former Prime Minister Alain Juppe was convicted of party financing irregularities in 2004 — Chirac’s presidential immunity long kept investigators at arm’s length.