Former French minister on trial

PARIS, France -- Former French foreign minister Roland Dumas and his ex-mistress are to appear in court to face fraud charges.

Dumas denies helping his former lover Christine Deviers-Joncour get a job with the previously state-owned Elf-Aquitaine company and then benefited from the fortune she gained from the petroleum giant.

Four former Elf executives, including one-time chairman Loik Le Floch Prigent, also stand accused, along with a business middleman.

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The case is the first of a recent wave of major political graft investigations to make it to trial as magistrates dig into accusations of rampant abuses across the French establishment.

The Dumas trial, which starts on Monday, will focus on the issue of whether Deviers-Joncour's employment and salary broke corporate rules.

Dumas was a close friend of former President Francois Mitterrand

Magistrates believe Elf was milked by politicians in the 1980s and early 1990s with the connivance of the late President Francois Mitterrand, Dumas' close friend.

Deviers-Joncour has admitted that Elf paid her some 65 million francs ($9.3 million) between 1989 and 1993, with which she bought a luxury flat in Paris, despite the fact that she never actually worked for the group.

In her book, 'The Whore of the Republic,' she says Elf gave her cash to lobby Dumas to approve the controversial 1991 sale of six frigates to Taiwan by another state firm, Thomson-CSF.

Magistrates have been unable to establish whether 78-year-old Dumas received any of the cash, but say he knew all about it and benefited through expensive presents -- including a pair of shoes that cost 11,000 francs.

Dumas was forced to stand aside in 1999 as head of the Constitutional Court, France's fifth-highest institutional position, in the face of the charges, but has always maintained he has been made a scapegoat.

He twice served as foreign minister during the 14-year reign of Mitterrand, whose political record has been tarnished since his death with repeated accusations of arrogant abuse of office.

"It is easier to crush me than to investigate the role of France itself, which benefited greatly from this subtle game of shadows and light, which I inherited but did not start or gain from," Dumas said in one interview.

If found guilty he faces a maximum five years in jail, but would almost certainly receive a fine or suspended sentence.

The trial, which was postponed last year because Dumas was recovering from surgery, is due to run until February 13.

One of the defendants, Le Floch Prigent's former right-hand man Alfred Sirven, is on the run and will be tried in absentia.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Elf Aquitaine
Roland Dumas resigns
Thomson-CSF

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