Former intelligence official contradicts former French prime minister in slander trial

Official contradicts French ex-PM in slander trial

PARIS — A longtime French intelligence official contradicted former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin on Monday in much-awaited testimony central to a slander trial that has rocked the French political establishment.

A court has been probing who was behind an alleged smear campaign to discredit President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2004, while he was still a government minister on the path to France’s highest office.

Sarkozy says the smear campaign was intended to thwart his bid to be elected president in 2007 — and filed suit saying he believed Villepin was “the primary instigator” behind it. Villepin, who was also a government minister at the time, has denied orchestrating any plot.

But there was a discrepancy between Villepin’s recounting of the affair in court last week and former intelligence official Gen. Philippe Rondot’s testimony Monday.

The trial centers on mysterious lists circulating in 2004 that claimed to show clients with secret accounts at the Luxembourg clearing house Clearstream, including Sarkozy and other leading political and business figures. The accounts purportedly had been created to store kickbacks from the sale of warships to Taiwan, among other shady income.

The lists were leaked to the media, before investigators determined they had been faked.

Rondot was carrying out a secret inquiry into the lists in 2004, and Villepin had several conversations with him about the affair. But the former premier denies naming Sarkozy as a target or otherwise attempting to damage him.

Villepin denied that Sarkozy’s name was mentioned in a conversation with Rondot in January 2004. But Rondot — who took detailed notes on their conversations — contradicted him.

“Nicolas Sarkozy’s name (was) mentioned,” Rondot told the court.

Villepin, to clear himself from the charge of complicity in slander, must prove that he did not realize the lists were fake when he asked that they be handed over to judicial officials for investigation in April 2004.

Rondot’s testimony on that issue could help Villepin: The former intelligence officer suggested Villepin still believed the lists were valid in July of that year.