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Monday, 14 January, 2002, 12:48 GMT
Chirac judge claims sabotage
![]() Halphen compares Chirac's actions to Richard Nixon's
The French investigating magistrate who led the main investigation into allegations of corruption against President Chirac has announced he's retiring, saying that his work was sabotaged.
He was taken off the case after France's highest court ruled that Mr Chirac has presidential immunity and could not be called as a witness.
He says he was followed, filmed and bugged during the seven years he worked on a number of highly sensitive corruption cases. Many of those date back to the period when Mr Chirac was Mayor of Paris - and the current French leader has been accused of if not benefitting from, then at least knowing about kickback schemes. Mr Halphen alleges that he was sabotaged at every turn of the investigation and compares cases involving French politicians to those involving the Italian mafia.
Mr Nixon, he says, resigned over a matter that was a thousand times less serious. France's Gaullist leader is expected to stand for re-election in April. With the polls putting him neck and neck with his likely challenger, the socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, the corruption allegations which continue to surround him may prove to be an important factor. |
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