Former French President Faces Charges

A French judge filed preliminary charges against former President Jacques Chirac on Wednesday in a probe of suspicions that people were given fake jobs while he was mayor of Paris, his lawyer said.

The judge placed Chirac under formal investigation for suspected embezzlement or misuse of public funds, the attorney, Jean Veil, said after the investigating magistrate questioned Chirac for nearly four hours.

The case is one of several hanging over Chirac, who had kept investigators at arm's length while he was president by using the immunity that comes with the post. He served as president from 1995 until May.

Under French law, preliminary charges mean the investigating judge has determined that there is strong evidence to suggest involvement in a crime. It gives the investigator time to pursue the probe before deciding whether to send the suspects for trial or drop the case.

Chirac, 74, is the 21st suspect to face preliminary charges in the probe. The investigation centers on whether Paris City Hall, under Chirac's tenure, was paying the salaries of people who in fact were not working for it. He was mayor of Paris from 1977-95.

Chirac denied any wrongdoing in an article published Wednesday in respected daily Le Monde.

"Never were Paris municipal resources devoted to ambitions other than acting for the Parisians. There was never personal enrichment. There was never a 'system,"' Chirac wrote.

The probe is focusing on only about 20 contested contracts, some of them short-term, spread over an 18-year period, he added.

The judge, Xaviere Simeoni, questioned Chirac Wednesday about the organization of City Hall while he was in charge, according to his attorney. Chirac will face follow-up questioning "in a few weeks or a few months," the lawyer added.

No longer shielded by presidential immunity, Chirac is seeing several cases come back to trouble him.

In July, he was questioned as a potential suspect by another judge, Alain Philibeaux, in a political financing probe. Philibeaux had been waiting for years to talk to Chirac about how much he knew.

Le Monde said Chirac is specifically suspected of having hired a chauffeur in 1990 who later told investigators that he in fact worked for a senator from Chirac's political party at that time.