WORLD / Europe
French PM questioned for over 17 hours
(AP)
Updated: 2006-12-22 13:26
PARIS - French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin underwent more than
17 hours of questioning by judges investigating a suspected smear
campaign against a political rival, a marathon grilling that spilled into
early Friday.
The scandal centered on damaging - but false - allegations that Nicolas
Sarkozy, France's interior minister who is widely considered a leading
presidential contender, had secret bank accounts.
The affair helped poison relations between Sarkozy and Villepin,
unsettling the center-right government in which they form an uneasy
pairing, and has played into the race for the French presidency in 2007.
Key questions are what Villepin knew, and when, and whether he kept an
investigation into the allegations going long after it became clear that
Sarkozy had been unjustly accused. Judges were questioning Villepin only
as a witness.
The questioning began at 9 a.m. Thursday and lasted until nearly 3 a.m.
"For my part, I was very pleased to be able to testify on this matter, of
which I have for many months been a victim of slander and lies," Villepin
told reporters after emerging from what he called his "marathon
testimony."
Suspicions that Villepin was involved in the accusations - combined with
his shelving of proposed labor reforms, which provoked violent protests
last spring - appear to have dashed his hopes of running for president.
Sarkozy, on the other hand, widely seen as a victim of the affair, has
emerged from it strengthened, leaving him the overwhelming favorite to
win the presidential nomination for the center-right UMP party, which he
heads.
His supporters have called for punishment if the investigation
establishes that the apparent smear campaign was aimed at unsettling the
Serkozy's presidential run.
"When low blows are used to sideline a political adversary, there must be
sanctions," Francois Fillon, Sarkozy's political adviser, said in a radio
interview. He said he believed that "people manipulated this affair" but
added "I have no proof."
Other prominent center-right UMP party politicians have been questioned
as witnesses, including Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie and former
Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin.
Jean-Louis Gergorin, a former vice president of European defense giant
EADS, and ex-EADS executive, Imad Lahoud, have been charged together with
Denis Robert, author of a book that implicates Villepin in the smear
campaign.
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