France's Chirac denies investigation summons

Paris, Jun 13: Aides to Jacques Chirac today denied the former French president had received a summons from judges investigating an apparent smear campaign against Nicolas Sarkozy, the man who succeeded him as president.

The satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaine said investigating magistrates Jean-Marie d'Huy and Henri Pons had called in the former head of state to discuss the so-called Clearstream case on June 18, two days after his presidential immunity expires.

''President Chirac has received no summons,'' a spokesman for Chirac's private office told Reuters.

Chirac's lawyer, Jean Veil, told Reuters he had spoken to the former president's aides, who had assured him they had not been contacted by either d'Huy or Pons with a request for an interview with Chirac, 74, who left office last month.

A number of investigators want to speak to Chirac, notably over a fake city hall jobs scam involving members of Chirac's ruling conservative party while he was mayor of Paris.

Veil declined to comment on the cases pending, saying Chirac had only recently returned to France from a holiday abroad.

Even if no official notification has been sent in the Clearstream case, d'Huy and Pons may have taken the decision in principle to call in Chirac without making it public until his immunity officially runs out at midnight on June 16.

The Clearstream affair began with anonymous letters alleging Sarkozy and senior left- and right-wing politicians held accounts in the international central securities depository.

The list quickly proved bogus and prompted an investigation into who had attempted to discredit Sarkozy and the others.

Chirac was drawn into the case because of notes made by retired General Philippe Rondot, a former spy drafted in to investigate the Clearstream accounts listing by the then foreign minister Dominique de Villepin.

The notes, seized by the two judges investigating the case, suggested Chirac had asked Villepin to have Rondot look into the Clearstream listings. Chirac's office denied last May that the president's office had been in contact with Rondot.

Reuters>