DOMINIQUE DE Villepin entered the Palais de Justice yesterday with characteristic flourish. Before a crush of journalists and well-wishers, the former French prime minister painted himself as the victim, rather than the accused.
“I am happy to be able to contribute today to the emergence of the truth, in an affair where lies and manipulations have hidden this truth”, he declared. A smattering of applause was heard from the public gathered outside the court.
Under the chandeliers of the gilded 16th-century courtroom, the former diplomat stood with his back to the crammed room and heard the charges against him.
With his distinctive eloquence, often using documents passed to him from his legal team, Mr de Villepin answered detailed questions from the judge relating to charges of deliberately smearing Nicolas Sarkozy, along with his co-accused, mathematician Imad Lahoud and Jean-Louis Gergorin, the former head of aeronautical giant EADS.
In the previous five days of testimony, Mr de Villepin had watched in silence as Mr Gergorin and Mr Lahoud accused each other of being the author of the infamous Clearstream listing. Yesterday, sitting together on the bench, the three defendants studiously ignored each other.
In a convoluted case mixing fraud, forgery and political backstabbing, Mr de Villepin remains the linchpin. The court needs to establish how much the star defendant and protege of Jacques Chirac knew about the bogus list of bank accounts which implicated his political rival, Nicolas Sarkozy, and whether Mr de Villepin overstepped his ministerial responsibilities by ordering an investigation into the list.
Those hoping for a breakthrough yesterday were disappointed.
Mr de Villepin’s line of defence remained the same as in his numerous press interviews before the trial – that he was a victim of the machinations of his co-defendants, and of Mr Sarkozy’s determination to destroy him through the courts.
He denied ever having seen the list at the heart of the case. “I never had the Clearstream list,” he said. “I was never informed of the fraudulent nature of the listing.”
The testimony contradicts that of his co-accused. Mr Gergorin had previously testified to handing a computer disk of the list to Mr de Villepin following a meeting at the foreign ministry in January 2004, and of then sending the list to a judge on instructions from Mr de Villepin.
The defendant went on to deny that any “presidential instruction” had been given by Mr Chirac to have the list quietly investigated, once again contradicting Mr Gergorin’s testimony. Mr de Villepin assured the court that he was not “covering for” the former president.
A former diplomat, now a lawyer, Mr de Villepin remained calm through most of the proceedings, using a tissue to wipe his brow when questioned more closely about the presence of Nicolas Sarkozy on the list, of which he also denied knowledge, claiming that he had learned of the crucial fact later.
It was only when questioned by Mr Sarkozy’s lawyer, Thierry Herzog, that discussions became momentarily heated, with Mr de Villepin accusing Mr Herzog of being “aggressive”.
The case, seen as a personal and political battle between Mr de Villepin and Mr Sarkozy, continues to fascinate in France.
Although the president repeats that he is an ordinary plaintiff, lawyers for Mr de Villepin continue to push for him to drop the case, claiming that his presidential powers over the judiciary prejudice proceedings.
Mr Sarkozy, however, is showing no signs of backing down. In a televised interview on the main news bulletin last week, the president, a lawyer by training, referred to all of the accused in the case as “guilty”.
Considered by some to be a slip of the tongue, the phrase was later defended by Mr Sarkozy’s party spokesman as legitimate. He was promptly charged by Mr de Villepin’s lawyers with infringing the principle of presumption of innocence, enshrined in the French constitution.
However, thanks to the judicial immunity granted to all French presidents, Nicolas Sarkozy need not respond to that accusation until he is out of office.