The former French president Jacques Chirac has been found guilty of corruption and sentenced to a two year suspended prison sentence after a longrunning criminal trial concluded this
past week. The events which led to the trial predate Chirac’s time as president but center around Chirac’s prior role as mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.
The court agreed with prosecutors who alleged that Chirac created fake government jobs in order to funnel an estimated €1 million of public money to his political allies in the Rally for the Republic organization. Benoît Hamon from the Socialist Party said he was glad that “justice has been done” and said it was “a good sign for French democracy that an independent judiciary could pronounce such a verdict on a former president of the republic”. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988.