Ex French minister denies fraud

PARIS, France -- Former French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas has given evidence in his multi-million dollar fraud trial.

The case centres on the sale of six frigates to Taiwan -- which signalled a change in French policy and led to widespread allegations that French and Taiwanese officials benefited from bribes to ensure the deal was successful.

Dumas and six others are facing charges of benefiting from commissions paid out in a 16 billion franc ($2.08 billion) contract for six vessels.

Among the other defendants is his former mistress, Christine Deviers-Joncour, 53, who has admitted receiving the equivalent of 65 million francs ($9.3 million) to lobby Dumas to approve the sale.

Dumas told the court on Tuesday that the late President Francois Mitterrand was indecisive about the frigate sale to Taiwan which caused one of France's biggest sleaze scandals.

"The president changed his mind on the subject several times," Dumas said.

Dumas, 78, who faces up to fives years in prison and a fine if found guilty, told the court he was the only member of the French cabinet to oppose the deal.

"The then prime minister, Michel Rocard, decided in 1989 that the sale should go through," Dumas said.

"As foreign minister, I went to President Mitterrand to tell him that allowing such a sale would overturn the policy instituted by General (Charles) de Gaulle in 1964 to improve ties with China and no longer sell arms to Taiwan.

"He therefore blocked the deal but there was pressure from industrialists and from locally elected officials to get it back on track."

He said the French president finally overturned his own decision two years later and approved the sale.

"I was opposed to the deal but all my cabinet colleagues were in favour," Dumas said.

Asked about pressure from Deviers-Joncours to get him to change state policy toward China, Dumas replied: "She came back again and again on the subject but I told her I would not change my mind."

The prosecution claims Dumas had helped Deviers-Joncour get a job as a lobbyist with petroleum giant Elf, which paid out the commissions even though the frigates were built by defence group Thomson-CSF, now privatised and renamed Thales.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Roland Dumas
Thales
Elf Aquitaine
General Society French Bank

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