Pave: Mangez des citrons ! V

Le jour 554 de Sarko

Nothing can justify this decision.

Dom,
ex-PM and currently
self-employed conscience of French government,
remarking on the impertinence of justice
(infra)

EAT SOME LEMONS!
Bitter Justice, More So For The Scapegoat
(Explanation under caption here.)

Remember Dom? The 100-day boy wonder? Tireless booster of le génie gaulois? In 2005, the man to beat in 2007? La Mouette? The foremost bad poet of France? The aesthete? The soi-disant improver of France?

Oh, then there was Dom the diva, le navet, the wimp, le magouilleur, the amnesiac, the indicted.*

This giant of Frenchitude deflated before our eyes. And once there was nothing left of him, he became a lawyer. [Pause.] And just in time.

VILLEPIN RENVOYÉ EN CORRECTIONNELLE
DANS L'AFFAIRE CLEARSTREAM
L'ancien Premier ministre français Dominique de Villepin
sera jugé en correctionnelle pour une manipulation menée en 2004
avec de fausses listes de comptes bancaires de la société Clearstream
qui aurait eu pour cible son rival, Nicolas Sarkozy.
18 novembre 2008 (L'Express)

[VILLEPIN RETURNED TO COURT
IN CLEARSTREAM AFFAIR*
Former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin to stand trial
for a 2004 scheme using phony Clearstream bank account lists
that pointed to his rival, Nicolas Sarkozy.]

[Hat tip: Carine]

FRENCH EX-PM TO APPEAR BEFORE COURT
OVER SMEAR CAMPAIGN

PARIS November 18, 2008 (AFP) - Former French prime minister Dominique de Villepin has been ordered to appear in court in connection with an alleged smear campaign that targeted President Nicolas Sarkozy, sources close to the case said Tuesday. M. Villepin:

Throughout the investigation, the truth of the facts and the law have been diverted for the benefit of one civil party who is at the same time today President of the Republic (Sarkozy).

The order drawn up by judges Jean-Marie d'Huy and Henri Pons was signed on Tuesday evening requiring Villepin to appear before the court over alleged "complicity" in slander, the sources said. Villepin is suspected of helping to orchestrate a leak in 2004 of what turned out to be a faked list of account-holders at the Clearstream bank in Luxembourg which included Sarkozy's name.

The named individuals were supposed to have benefited from illegal commissions from arms sales. At the time, Villepin and Sarkozy were rivals to succeed then president Jacques Chirac.

The former premier has been under investigation since July 2007 over the affair.

Sarkozy has declared himself a civil plaintiff in the case, arguing he was the victim of a plot to derail his bid for the presidency. Villepin accuses Sarkozy of manipulating the Clearstream affair to cast himself as its victim.

Even in misrule Dom is not the big fish. But little fish catch big fish.

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* For other Clearstream posts not linked above see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

PFFT (What is this?): Little fishy 4½ | Rayonnement français 0