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French Former FM Sentenced to 2.5-Year Prison Terms
French former foreign minister Roland Dumas was sentenced on Wednesday to six months in prison and another two-year term suspended for his role in the corruption scandal of the state oil company Elf.
Dumas, 78, was also given a fine of one million francs (130,000 U.S. dollars) for accuses of making his mistress Christine Deviers-Joncour hired at Elf and benefiting from the salaries and commissions she was paid.
Dumas, foreign minister and president of the Constitutional Council, was placed under investigation in 1998 for "receiving the benefits of a misuse of company property" in France's most high- profile corruption scandal.
He said he does not plead guilty and will appeal immediately after the Paris Correctional Tribunal announced the sentence.
Along with Dumas, four others were sentenced. Derviers-Joncour was sentenced to 18 months in prison and another 18-month term suspended.
She was alleged to have received 64.5 million francs (9 million dollars) from ELf, which she said was in return for having influenced Dumas, especially in the 1991 sale of six warships to Taiwan.
Alfred Sirven, 74, former No.2 of Elf, was sentenced to four years in prison and a fine of 2 million francs (about 260.000 dollars).
He was captured in the Philippines on February 2 after four years of hiding and accused of hiring Derviers-Joncour and paying her millions of dollars to try to influence Dumas' decisions.
Loik Le Floch-Prigent, 57, former head of Elf from 1989 to 1993, was given 3.5 years in prison and a fine of 2.5 million francs (about 700,000 dollars). The Prosecution believed he knew all about the hiring of Derviers-Joncour and the commissions giving in his company.
Gilbert Miara, 62, a businessman close to Derviers-Joncour, was sentenced to 18 months in prison and a fine of 1 million francs for receiving commissions in the warship deal.
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