June 24, 2007	Sunday	Jamadi-us-Sani 08, 1428

PARIS, June 23: Former French president Jacques Chirac has refused to testify over a political dirty tricks scandal, but could face questioning over a party financing affair before he took office.

Chirac announced late on Friday that he would not answer questions from investigators looking into an alleged plot, known as the Clearstream Scandal, to discredit Nicolas Sarkozy before Sarkozy took over as president.

Under the constitution “the president of the republic is not responsible for acts committed in this capacity” and a former head of state could not be made to testify on things that were “done or known during his mandate and in carrying out his functions,” his office said in a statement.

Chirac was replaced by Sarkozy on May 16. Chirac was believed to have favoured a rival candidate, former prime minister Dominique de Villepin, to become the ruling party’s candidate for the presidency.

Clearstream centred on faked bank documents bearing the names of prominent figures – including Sarkozy – who were falsely alleged to have received illegal commissions from the sale of French warships to Taiwan.

Sarkozy said he was the victim of a dirty tricks campaign to block his eventually successful presidential bid.—AFP