A French court found a former aide to President Jacques Chirac guilty of corruption and handed him a four-year suspended prison sentence on Wednesday for his role in a public contracts scam linked to the head of state.
Michel Roussin, a former minister who was Chirac's chief of staff when the president was mayor of Paris before becoming head of state in 1995, was found guilty of involvement in a kickback scheme run between 1989 and 1995.
He was also fined 50,000 euros ($60,330).
The scam provided illegal funds to politicians in exchange for contracts to build or repair Paris-area schools. The trial was one of France's biggest corruption cases and most of the 47 accused were convicted, including two other former ministers.
Roussin, 66, had denied charges he ran the scheme and sometimes even collected the payments, but admitted he knew of the system by which politicians got illegal payments amounting to 2 percent of any contract.
Presidential immunity protects Chirac from prosecution on any charges relating to his days as Paris mayor, but the case has further tarnished his weakened reputation. He has denied knowledge of the kickbacks but refused to be questioned.
Prosecutors said the spoils amounted to about 70 million euros. Chirac's conservative RPR party got the lion's share but some funds were spread around to a small right-wing party and also to the opposition Socialist Party.
The court handed former Labour Minister Michel Giraud a four-year suspended prison sentence and an 80,000 euros fine.
Former Sports Minister Guy Drut, a 1976 Olympic hurdles gold medallist who is also a member of the International Olympic Committee, received a 15-month suspended prison sentence and a 50,000 euros fine. A third former minister was acquitted.
Chirac's long shadow hung over the trial, which held its public sessions between March 21 and July 6.
Political analysts say the case may have hurt Chirac's chances in the May 29 referendum on the European constitution, which voters rejected despite his call for support, and Paris's bid to host the Olympic Games in 2012, which it lost to London.
In a separate case, former Prime Minister Alain Juppe, a close Chirac ally, was convicted last year for his role in the misuse of Paris city hall funds in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when Chirac was mayor of the French capital.
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