Ex-French Chief Justice Convicted
A former Resistance fighter who became France’s top diplomat was convicted of corruption Wednesday and sentenced to six months in prison, ending a trial that entranced the public with tales of betrayed love and lavish gifts.
Roland Dumas, 78, who rose through the political ranks to join the inner circle of the late President Francois Mitterrand, was convicted of receiving illegal funds from the formerly state-owned oil giant, Elf Aquitaine, between 1989 and 1992 while he was foreign minister.
The court also gave Dumas a two-year suspended sentence and fined him more than $130,380. His former mistress, Christine Deviers-Joncour, who prosecutors said made $9 million from Elf for her work as a lobbyist, received a three-year sentence, with 18 months suspended. She was fined $195,570.
The trial exposed a web of corruption at Elf Aquitaine, which was taken over last year by the French-Belgian group TotalFina.
Dumas was forced to quit as head of the Constitutional Council, France’s highest judicial authority, last year after the scandal broke.
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