Lawyer says politicians were given bags of cash

Former French president Jacques Chirac and former prime minister Dominique de Villepin received an estimated $20 million in illegal cash from West African leaders, a lawyer who claimed to be the go-between has said.

Lawyer Robert Bourgi yesterday said he handed over suitcases filled with cash between 1995 and 2005, including $10m from the leaders of Senegal, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Gabon and Republic of Congo for Mr Chirac’s 2002 presidential campaign.

Mr Villepin and Mr Chirac’s lawyers denounced the claims.

The explosive allegations come as Mr Chirac is on trial for unconnected corruption charges related to his years as Paris mayor, and as the campaign for next year’s French presidential elections is heating up.

In an interview yesterday on Europe-1 radio, Mr Bourgi said: “The entirety of [France’s] political class knew there was hidden financing.”

Mr Chirac’s lawyer, Jean Veil, has said the former French leader is going to press defamation charges against Mr Bourgi, calling the timing of the claims “at the very least suspicious, if not scandalous”.

Mr Chirac is already on trial on charges that fake Paris city council jobs were used to fund his conservative party during his tenure as Paris mayor. A judge ruled last week the 78-year-old former president could be represented by his lawyers at the proceedings, as he is suffering from severe memory lapses.

An official at the presidential Élysée Palace rejected Mr Bourgi’s claim as “totally baseless.” Mr Villepin dismissed the accusations as “false and disgraceful”.

Burkina Faso, which was among the nations cited, dismissed the claim as “grotesque”.

Government spokesman Alain Edouard Traore said Mr Bourgi’s declaration is linked to internal French politics ahead of presidential elections next year.

“We have far more serious things to do for Burkina Faso than handle pronouncements between candidates and non-candidates, between advisers,” Mr Traore said on national radio.

Mr Bourgi denied his comments were politically motivated, saying: “It is my conscience that required to speak out.”

Mr Bourgi added that because the payouts were in cash he had no proof to support his claims.