Telegraph.co.uk
Nicolas Sarkozy's political mentor, Charles Pasqua, went on trial on Monday in France's highest political court, where he was accused of using his political clout to secure €7 million (£6.2 million) in kickbacks to fund his political campaign.
Prosecutors claim the money passed via the offshore accounts of shadowy business "friends" and his only son, Pierre-Philippe.
Long known as the godfather of the French Right, Mr Pasqua, 83, a Gaullist former interior minister, is the sixth former minister to stand trial in France's Court of Justice of the Republic, created in 1993 to try politicians accused of wrongdoing while in government.
The man commentators say "left a trace of sulphur" from his various political dealings in France and Africa, Mr Pasqua is charged with passive corruption and misuse of funds in three dossiers dating from 1993 to 1995.
But the 83-year-old wartime resistance fighter claims he is the victim of a plot hatched in 2000 by Jacques Chirac, the then president. Mr Chirac, he claims, sought to smear his one-time ally when he discovered Mr Pasqua intended to run for president in 2002.
Among the 60 witnesses called to the bar will be Claude Guéant, Mr Sarkozy's chief of staff, who was Mr Pasqua's deputy head of cabinet. His appearance could embarrass the president, as Mr Guéant played a role in trying to push through the Annemasse casino contract. Henri Guaino, another top Sarkozy aide, will also testify.
Mr Pasqua, who will be judged by six senators, six MPs and three magistrates over nine days, faces a maximum ten-year prison conviction. He has already been found guilty by a criminal court in the casino dossier, and convicted to a year in prison for receiving bribes in the Angolagate arms trafficking trial last October. He has appealed the ruling.
Even if convicted, Mr Pasqua is under no immediate threat of going to jail: he can launch and appeal and currently enjoys parliamentary immunity from prosecution as a senator.
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