# is chirac a criminal?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chirac-a-criminal/246843>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 24, 2004, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chirac-a-criminal/246843 "2004-05-24T18:20:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![olihale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/858c86/32.png) [@olihale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/olihale)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2004, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chirac-a-criminal/246843/1 "2004-05-24T18:20:50Z")

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my friend assures me that jacque chirac, the french president, is a criminal and would be arrested if he wasnt in office.is this true?

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**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2004, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chirac-a-criminal/246843/2 "2004-05-24T18:38:19Z")

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It’s a mixture of truth, rumour, slander and speculation. Were he not in office, he _might_ be prosecuted. But we’ll never know the whole truth. Exactly the same as with Berlusconi in Italy.

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**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2004, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chirac-a-criminal/246843/3 "2004-05-24T19:06:23Z")

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He could have been heard as “assisted witness” (a step below prosecution) and possibly could have been prosecuted. As former mayor of Paris and former president of the conservative party “RPR”, his name appeared several times in cases of embezzlement which apparently benefited to his party or to private individuals. He’s not suspected of having benefitted personnally from these diverted or wasted funds, though.

Various fuses have been burnt, including some high level politicians, like a former prime minister and treasurer of his party, but they didn’t manage to shield him totally.  
The french Constitutionnal Council ruled that he couldn’t be prosecuted while in office, except by the High Court of Justice, formed by the parliament, even for criminal cases. Since there’s no precedent nobody knows if it will be possible to prosecute him after his term, if the statutes of limitations will apply or will be suspended for the duration of his office, etc…