Pave: Ex-Jack, The Adventure Continues II

The day Sarko briskly herded Jack from the Élysée, we thought, Ah, where we will ever find another Jack?

Ha! Not to worry! Ex-Jack looks to be a permanent headline fixture for years to come.

CHIRAC ACCUSED OF 'TREASON' OVER DJIBOUTI JUDGE DEATH

PARIS June 13, 2007 (AFP) - Former French president Jacques Chirac was accused of "treason" Wednesday for allegedly helping the government of Djibouti cover up the truth behind the 1995 death of a French judge.

Elisabeth Borrel, who believes her husband Bernard Borrel was murdered by Djibouti agents, said that France cooperated with President Ismael Omar Guelleh's efforts to bury the affair because of fears of losing its military base in the tiny east African state.

... Borrel's half-burned body was found at the foot of a ravine 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the town of Djibouti in October 1995. He had been working on secondment [scil., reassignment] to the Djibouti justice ministry.

A local enquiry concluded that he had committed suicide [with which the French concurred], but the next year French justice officials disputed the findings and opened a murder investigation.

The investigating French magistrates concluded in September 1999:

"[E]xcept considering the existence of a vast politico-legal plot, implying interference of the testimony of witnesses, voluntarily erroneous verbal lawsuits, directed medical examinations and general conspiracy of silence, the assumption of the assassination cannot, to date, [be] seriously retained."

In law, as in other disciplines, the theory that explains the most in accordance with the facts is preferred.

The suicide theory in the death of M. Borrel goes something like this: Bernard Borrel, a career jurist investigating sensitive matters related to international terrorism, woke one morning to find within himself cause for suicide. Perhaps the shame of a long overdue library book, the fine for which was ruinous. Perhaps some darker secret. He hikes 50 miles out of town to ensure his desperate act goes unobserved. He then sets himself aflame and deposits himself at the foot of a ravine so his charred remains do not distress any passing foot traffic. Such a theory dispells all the apparent mysteries surrounding M. Borrel's death.

Spontaneous combustion is another strong theory.

[Mdm. Borrel's] accusation came a day after documents were made public which appeared to show that in 2005 Chirac advised Guelleh to take France before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague over the French criminal investigation into Borrel's death.

... "It was Chirac himself who suggested to Djibouti's president to take France before the ICJ," said her lawyer Olivier Morice.

"Juridically what happened comes under the heading of treason. Since the start of the affair diplomatic considerations have taken precedence over justice," said Laurent de Caunes, who is also on her legal team.

... In March this year judges in France opened a separate investigation into allegations of French political pressure in the Borrel case.

They then raided the ministries of justice and foreign affairs in Paris and seized a number of documents. An attempt to search the Elysee palace shortly before Chirac left office in May was thwarted because of his presidential immunity.

Leaked to the press on Tuesday, the seized documents -- including a diplomatic note from the French ambassador in Djibouti -- appear to suggest that it was France's idea for Djibouti to go before the ICJ in order to demand access to the French criminal investigation.

"The Djibouti authorites are thinking over our idea of resorting to the ICJ," the ambassador's note from mid-2005 reads, according to a copy obtained by AFP.

In the French multipolar world there are no sovereign interests, just friends helping friends.

PFFT (What is this?): Fell in the toaster and got burnt up dead 0 | Perspicacious French judiciary ½ | Rayonnement français 0