Jacques Chirac may have hoped to be remembered as the dapper president and diplomatic heavyweight who retired from the world stage to become the unofficial grandfather of his nation. A man of "flesh and blood and principles … employed in the service of his country," as he put it.
Instead, his place in French history has been seriously tarnished after a Paris court convicted him of embezzling public funds and gave him a two-year suspended prison sentence on corruption charges.
Posterity may judge that the former president's greatest achievement was not taking France into the euro or opposing the Iraq war, but inadvertently shining a light on the cronyism and corruption that have long dogged French politics.
Even before the verdict, the former president's lawyer had warned what was at stake. "Your judgment will be the last image we are given of Jacques Chirac," Georges Kiejman had told the court, pleading for his ailing client to be cleared.
Judge Dominique Pauthe was unmoved, however, and found Chirac guilty as charged of embezzling public funds, abusing public trust and an illegal conflict of interests.
The surprise verdict made Chirac the first former French leader to be convicted since Marshal Philippe Pétain, the head of the Vichy regime, was found guilty in 1945 of collaborating with the Nazis.
On Thursday night, Chirac said through his lawyers that he "categorically contested" the verdict, but that he would not be appealing against it.
Chirac, 79, who led France between 1995 and 2007, was not in court to hear the ruling. He had been given a special dispensation to be spared appearing at the trial in September and the reading of the verdict on Thursday after a medical report found he had "irreversible" neurological problems that had caused "an important loss of memory".
The judgment came 20 years after the crime and after more than a decade of legal wrangling. During his time as president, Chirac enjoyed immunity from prosecution and refused to testify before the investigating magistrate, saying it was "incompatible" with his role as head of state. In truth, even after he left office few expected the now frail former leader to be brought to justice, let alone convicted.
Even the public prosecutor had asked for the case to be dropped, saying there was insufficient evidence to prove intentional corruption. The court disagreed.
Benoît Hamon, spokesman for the opposition Socialist party, said it was only right it did. The judgment was late, he said, "but what is important is that it was made and that justice has been done".
It was, he added "a good sign for French democracy that an independent judiciary could pronounce such a verdict on a former president of the republic".
After the verdict Kiejman said he hoped the French would still find a place in their hearts for their former president, whose popularity soared after he left office in 2007 to be replaced by his former protege, Nicolas Sarkozy. "What I hope is that this ruling doesn't change in any way the deep affection the French feel legitimately for Jacques Chirac."
Speaking outside the courtroom, Chirac's adopted Vietnamese-born daughter, Anh Dao Traxel, fought back tears as she said: "The justice system has been very severe, but this is a fair and independent justice system. For the family, it's a great pain we have to accept."
Chirac, at one point declared the most unpopular president of the fifth republic by pollsters, was known for his suave charm, lack of pomposity, diplomacy and love of Mexican beer and Japanese sumo wrestling. The charges against him and nine other defendants, seven of whom were convicted on Thursday, date back from his time as mayor of Paris in the early 1990s, when Chirac was accused of using public money for his own political ends.
Dubbed the "fake jobs" affair, the case centred around 21 fictitious jobs created at Paris city hall between 1990 and 1995. He became mayor in 1977 (pictured left) and held the role until 1995 apart from a two-year period in the 80s when he was prime minister. Investigators have estimated about €1m (£838,000) in salaries and fees were misappropriated from the city payroll to pay people working full-time for Chirac's political party in the runup to his successful election campaign in 1995.
Chirac's right-hand man at city hall, Alain Juppé, a former prime minister and now French foreign minister, was given a 14-month suspended sentence for his part in the affair in 2004.
The Paris city authorities had renounced the right to be party to the case against him after striking a deal and being reimbursed by Chirac and the ruling right-of centre Union for a Popular Movement party (UMP) to the tune of €2.2m, without any admission of guilt.The case followed a string of corruption claims centred around political funding. Many of them involved Chirac's Gaullist Rally for the Republic (RPR) party, which later became the UMP.
Chirac's successor as president, Sarkozy, has been tainted by corruption allegations implicating his friends and allies – also involving claims of illegal party funding. A judicial inquiry into the so-called Karachi Affair – investigating kickbacks from submarine sales to Pakistan in 1994 – has seen at least two of Sarkozy's friends put under investigation.
The long-running family feud that engulfed the family of L'Oréal heir Liliane Bettencourt also brought claims that she gave illegal cash donations in brown envelopes to members of Sarkozy's ruling party.
Sarkozy has always denied any involvement in any of the scandals. verdict saying it was an "exemplary sanction" against the former president.
Jerome Karsenti, a lawyer for the group, said the verdict sent a message to all of France's political elite. "It's also proof of a mature and transparent democracy that is today able to make a distinction and try a former president. I see it as a historic and very important decision for the future of French democracy," he said.
As for his place in the history books: whether Chirac will be ultimately remembered as a consummate politician or common criminal, only time will tell.
'Le Bulldozer'
Jacques René Chirac was born on 29 November 1932, the son of an airline company executive and his wife. He grew up an only child; his elder sister Jacqueline died before he was born.
He was president of France from 1995 until 2007 and has been prime minister twice, from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988.
He studied at the prestigious Institute for Political Sciences in Paris and did a term at Harvard University before attending the elite civil servants' school, the École Nationale d'Administration, from which he became a high-level civil servant and entered politics. He modelled himself on de Gaulle and earned a reputation as "Le Bulldozer".
In his younger days he had a reputation as a ladies' man.He is married to the aristocratic Bernadette Chodron de Courcel and they have two daughters, Laurence and Claude, who worked as her father's personal assistant when he was president. They also have a Vietnamese-born adopted daughter, Anh Dao Traxel.
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