This video from France is called Judge to decide on pursuing corruption charges against Chirac.
From France 24:
Former French President Jacques Chirac is due to learn today if he needs to appear before a Paris court to answer to charges of misappropriation of public funds during his time as the city’s mayor in the 1980s and 1990s.
An update says:
AFP: Chirac is to be tried on allegations that he gave 21 political allies false contracts as ghost workers in Paris city hall.
When, if ever, will Chirac’s successor and fellow Rightist, Nicolas Sarkozy, stand trial?
By Pierre Mabut and Alex Lantier:
The NPA and France’s political-financial scandals19 November 2009
France’s political-financial scandals present a striking contrast that demands explanation. On the one hand, there is the high rank of the main defendants—ex-President Jacques Chirac, ex-Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, and ex-Interior Minister Charles Pasqua—and the seriousness of the underlying crimes: the illegal funding of France’s murderous stooge regimes in Africa and massive kickbacks in international weapons sales. Objectively, these trials constitute an indictment of French imperialism.
On the other hand, the bulk of the charges against the defendants are minor and technical. Chirac is charged with illegally funding a few dozen jobs for political appointees as mayor of Paris, and Villepin is charged with considering a plot to slander current President Nicolas Sarkozy with faked bank records. No one has risen to protest what is, in effect, a cover-up of the real crimes.
France’s minister of immigration and national identity, Eric Besson, has called for a nationwide debate on “national identity” following a month of unprecedented assaults on migrants and refugees, notably Afghans fleeing war and deprivation: here.
Chirac goes to trial over graft charge
France Former president Jacques Chirac has been ordered to stand trial in an alleged corruption scandal dating back to his 1977-95 tenure as Paris mayor, a judicial official has announced.
Investigating magistrate Xaviere Simeoni ordered Mr Chirac to stand trial on charges of “embezzlement” and “breach of trust.”
The magistrate has been probing whether people in Mr Chirac’s circle were given sham jobs as advisers and paid by Paris city hall, even though they weren’t working for it.
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/world/World-in-brief174