A French court sentenced former French President Jacques Chirac to a two-year suspended jail term following his conviction on graft charges. He was held guilty for misappropriation of public funds and embezzlement. This is the first time a French Head of State has been convicted since the trial in 1945 of Marshal Philippe Petain who collaborated with the Nazis.
He is the first former or serving president of modern France to be tried, although Nazi-era collaborationist leader Philippe Petain was convicted of treason and king Louis XVI was sent to the guillotine by revolutionaries in 1793.
Chirac who suffers from neurological problems and is in poor health was not present in the courtroom. served two consecutive terms as President from 1995 to 2007.
Chirac's crimes date back to the 1990s when, as Mayor of Paris, he placed several of his party men and women on the public payroll in what has been described as phantom jobs. Chirac's case took years to come to court because as President he was immune to prosecution. He was found guilty of influence peddling, breach of trust and embezzlement between 1990 and 1995.
Chirac's criminal conduct had cost Paris taxpayers the equivalent of 1.4 million euros ($1.8 million). He breached the duty of trust that weighs on public officials charged with caring for public funds or property, in contempt of the general interest of Parisians.
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