Lawyers for former French president Jacques Chirac said yesterday he would not attend his corruption trial opening in Paris tomorrow as the 78-year-old’s son-in-law told of his failing memory.
Chirac’s legal representatives said they submitted a letter to the presiding judge on Friday, together with a copy of his medical file.
The charges relate to the stateman’s time as Paris mayor in the 1990s when he is accused of embezzling public funds to pay people working for his party ahead of his successful 1995 electon bid.
“President Chirac indicated to the court his wish to see the trial proceed to its end and his willingness to assume his responsibilities, even though he is not entirely capable of taking part in the hearings,” his lawyers said in a statement.
“He has therefore asked his lawyers to represent him and speak for him in these hearings.”
There had been speculation about Chirac’s state of health, who was said to have been tired when he arrived on holiday in Saint Tropez in the south of France at the beginning of August.
His son-in-law Frederic Salat-Baroux said yesterday Chirac’s health “has been getting worse for several months” and he “no longer has the memory” to attend the court hearings.
“Yes, his health has been getting worse for several months, so he cannot attend the trial in humane and dignified conditions,” he said.
“For his family this is very painful,” he added.
Salat-Baroux said that “anybody facing trial would have asked that the debate stop” but “Jacques Chirac does not want this to happen under any circumstances”.
“If the trial stopped, the French would think there are two legal systems – one for the powerful and one for the weak”.
“As a statesman, a former head of state, he believes he must meet higher standards than others,” added Salat-Baroux, who was chief of staff at Chirac’s Elysees office.
At the start of the year his wife Bernadette denied that Chirac was suffering from Alzheimer’s.
French daily Le Monde reported that a neurological report sought by his family in July concluded that Chirac was in “a vulnerable condition which will not allow him to answer questions about his past”.
Chirac enjoyed immunity from prosecution as president from 1995 to 2007, but the case, which has already seen current Foreign Minister Alain Juppe convicted, has finally caught up with the former head of state.
Best known internationally for his opposition to the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, he has been linked to a series of corruption scandals but has never been convicted.
Chirac is the first French former head of state to face criminal charges since the leader of the collaborationist wartime regime, marshal Philippe Petain, was convicted of treason after World War II.