Ex-French prez Chirac faces corruption charges

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 said today.

Lawyer Robert Bourgi said he handed over suitcases filled with cash between 1995 and 2005, including $10 million from the leaders of Senegal, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Gabon and Republic of Congo for Chirac's 2002 presidential campaign. Both Villepin and Chirac's lawyers denounced the claims.

The explosive allegations come as 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.

The claims revived uncomfortable questions about France's cozy relations with autocratic regimes in its former African colonies.

In an interview today on Europe-1 radio, Bourgi said "the entirety of [France's] political class knew there was hidden financing."

Chirac's attorney, Jean Veil, has said the former French leader is going to press defamation charges against Bourgi, calling the timing of the claims is "at the very least suspicious, if not scandalous."

Chirac is already on trial on charges that fake Paris City Hall jobs were used to fund Chirac's conservative party during his tenure as Paris mayor.