The trial of former French president Jacques Chirac for misuse of public funds began today, but proceedings were promptly delayed by an appeal from a co-defendant which could see the trial postponed for months.
Mr Chirac (78), who has lately appeared tired and weak in public, was excused from attending the first day of the trial, which marks the first time since 1945 that a former French head of state has faced criminal charges.
Mr Chirac, still one of France's most popular politicians, is accused of embezzling public money to fund his political party during his time as mayor of Paris between 1977 and 1995, when he became president.
The hearing - held in the same courtroom as the trial of Queen Marie Antoinette in 1793, during the French Revolution - came after 11 years of legal wrangling over allegations that Mr Chirac used city funds to pay 28 phantom employees for political ends.
Until he left the presidency in 2007, Mr Chirac enjoyed immunity from prosecution. If found guilty, he could face up to 10 years in prison and €150,000 in fines, but a suspended sentence is more likely.
The case is going ahead even though the plaintiff, the city of Paris, withdrew its complaint after Mr Chirac agreed to pay €500,000 in compensation and France's ruling UMP party said it would pay a further €1.7 million on his behalf.
If judges rule in favour of today's appeal by one of Mr Chirac's nine co-defendants, France's constitutional court will then need to decide whether the trial can go ahead - slowing down the process by several months.
Investigating magistrates say Mr Chirac masterminded a scheme to have Paris City Hall pay for work that benefited his political party while he was mayor. One allegation is that the head of a top French labour union had his bodyguard and driver improperly paid for by the city.
Mr Chirac has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. He insists that France had no judicial rules at the time that laid out party financing and that the expenses were approved by the city council. For years, he benefited from presidential immunity to avoid legal proceedings. Some claims were suspended at the time, allowing the statute of limitations to invalidate many allegations against him.
The trial centres on alleged wrongdoing in only the last three years of his 18-year term as mayor, largely because the allegations of hundreds of other bogus jobs before then are considered too old to warrant a trial.
Should Mr Chirac himself stand in the dock, it will be the first time a former head of state has faced criminal charges since Marshal Philippe Petain, a former first World War hero who led France's government during Nazi occupation. Petain was found guilty of treason by a court in 1945 after the liberation.
It would also be a victory for prosecutors facing political pressure to abandon proceedings against the former president.
Four years after the end of his 12-year presidential term, Mr Chirac remains a popular figure. He was applauded by the public and mobbed by journalists last month when he showed up at a farm show in Paris, tasting beer and chatting to farmers.
But despite his popularity - an IFOP poll last July showed he was France's most popular political figure - many French people see the trial as a test of whether courts will treat him differently from other politicians accused of crimes.
A BVA poll this week showed that 56 per cent of French people wanted Mr Chirac to face trial, versus 31 per cent against.
Reuters