FRANCE’S FIRST lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, has come to her husband’s defence over allegations that he put pressure on a public prosecutor to appeal former prime minister Dominique de Villepin’s acquittal in the so-called Clearstream trial.
Mr Villepin was cleared last week of conspiring to slander his rival Nicolas Sarkozy and sabotage his 2007 presidential campaign, but the prosecutor has opened the way for a second trial by appealing the verdict.
The former prime minister has accused Mr Sarkozy of being behind the “political decision” to appeal and says his former rival is pursuing a campaign of “hatred” against him.
In a radio interview, however, an indignant Ms Bruni-Sarkozy said she was “very surprised at the lack of confidence” accorded to the independent judiciary by Mr Villepin and the media.
“I believe fundamentally in the independence of the justice system . . . and I am stunned by this sort of allegation,” she said.
The first lady was caught off guard by the questions on Clearstream during an interview about her work on HIV/Aids prevention in Africa.
As recriminations continued over last week’s verdict, the Paris public prosecutor yesterday strongly denied that he was influenced by the Élysée Palace in appealing Mr Villepin’s acquittal. Jean-Claude Marin insisted he took the decision based on his “conviction” about the case.
“Even before the judgment was delivered, I indicated that this case would go to an appeal, one way or another,” he said.
Asked about Mr Villepin’s claim that the decision to appeal was taken in the Élysée the day after the verdict, Mr Marin said: “He is wrong . . . I heard about Nicolas Sarkozy’s withdrawal as a civil plaintiff through his press statement. If there were meetings, they didn’t relate to me.”
Mr Sarkozy was claiming damages after his name was fraudulently included on a forged list of supposed bank accounts with Clearstream, a Luxembourg bank.
However, after months of investigation and weeks of hearings last year, the court ruled last week that there was no proof of Mr Villepin’s involvement in a conspiracy and cleared him on all counts.