Nicolas Sarkozy clears biggest hurdle on comeback trail

BORDEAUX: Nicolas Sarkozy’s comeback hopes were given a major boost on Monday when judges investigating an election financing scandal dropped a corruption charge against the former French president.
The unexpected decision removes the biggest and most immediate obstacle to a career revival for the 58-year-old, although he remains embroiled in a string of unrelated legal investigations.
The charismatic right-winger had been facing a lengthy trial process, a potential three-year prison term and a ban from public office after being formally charged in March as part of a wide-ranging probe into allegations he illegally received cash from France’s richest woman, Liliane Bettencourt, to help fund his successful 2007 election campaign.
But after six months of deliberations, the two judges in charge of the case have decided to send only 10 of the 12 accused for trial and to drop proceedings against Sarkozy and one other suspect, tax lawyer Fabrice Goguel, judicial sources told AFP.
On a visit to the Grand Mosque in Paris on Monday, Sarkozy declined to comment on the trial threat being lifted, but his allies were keen to play up the significance of Monday’s unexpected twist in the legal saga.
“It means his political calendar is no longer a hostage to the judicial calendar,” said Rachida Dati, the former justice minister who was a Sarkozy protege. “My feeling is France may have need of someone who can unite and who can provide leadership where there is currently none.” The specific charge against Sarkozy was that he took advantage of L’Oreal heiress Bettencourt by seeking and accepting her money when she was allegedly too frail to know what she was doing. Bettencourt, now 90, has suffered from dementia since 2006.
Amongst the six who will face trial is Eric Woerth, a former minister who was Sarkozy’s campaign treasurer and who stands accused of accepting envelopes stuffed with cash from Bettencourt’s right-hand man, Patrice de Maistre.
The decision to drop the charges against Sarkozy is in line with a recommendation from the public prosecutor in the case, who had advised the judges that convictions were unlikely to be secured against six of the 12 accused, including the former president.
That advice was initially ignored by the two judges, prompting allegations of political bias, and it had been widely assumed that Sarkozy would be sent for trial following the failure last week of an attempt by his lawyers to have the charges dismissed on procedural grounds.
It emerged on Monday however that the Bordeaux prosecutors had warned the judges that they would appeal against any decision to send Sarkozy for trial, raising the prospect of a further delay in concluding a criminal investigation while Sarkozy was still in office and protected by presidential immunity.