Former French PM to meet judges over smear scandal

PARIS, July 29 (Reuters) Former French prime minister Dominique de Villepin will meet judges investigating the so-called Clearstream smear scandal in September, his lawyer said today.

Villepin has been placed under formal investigation for ''complicity in slanderous allegations'' in the affair, in which he is suspected of using French intelligence services to smear Nicolas Sarkozy before the recent presidential election, which Sarkozy won.

Villepin met judges on Friday but declined to answer questions until he had a chance to examine the dossier more closely and will now meet them in a few weeks' time.

''The judges said in September,'' Luc Brossollet told Reuters.

Being placed under investigation does not necessarily imply guilt but can be a preliminary step before a trial.

The former prime minister has denied any wrongdoing in the affair in which Sarkozy's name appeared on a faked list of secret accounts purportedly held at Luxembourg-based securities clearing house Clearstream.

He says that he asked for the case to be investigated as part of his responsibilities as foreign minister and then interior minister but denies improperly targeting Sarkozy, a rival in the race to succeed Jacques Chirac as president.

Chirac's name has also figured in the affair and judges forbade Villepin to speak to the former president as part of a supervision order that also included a 273,000 dollars surety.

Villepin is expected to say the investigation should not be handled by ordinary magistrates but that the case should come under the jurisdiction of the Cour de Justice de la Republique, a special tribunal that examines the actions of ministers.

The scandal emerged in 2004 when anonymous letters were sent to a magistrate alleging Sarkozy and other senior politicians held accounts supposedly linked to kickbacks related to the sale of frigates to Taiwan in 1991.

The allegations proved to be spurious and the focus of investigations switched to the identity of those behind the denunciation, which was apparently aimed at damaging Sarkozy.

REUTERS JT BST2100