France's former prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, goes on trial Monday on charges he helped perpetuate a smear campaign targeting his longtime rival, President Nicolas Sarkozy.
The monthlong trial in the saga known as the Clearstream affair will also delve into old international arms deals, offshore bank accounts and the French aviation industry.
Sarkozy, one of more than 40 plaintiffs in the trial, accuses Villepin of trying to throw his campaign off course in the 2007 presidential elections.
Villepin will be on the defendants' bench along with four others. About 20 witnesses are expected to testify in the trial, scheduled to run through Oct. 21.
The complex affair dates back to 2004, when both Sarkozy and Villepin were leading conservative hopefuls to succeed then-President Jacques Chirac.
The case began with a mysterious list claiming to show clients who held secret accounts with Luxembourg clearing house Clearstream, including Sarkozy and other leading French political and business figures. The accounts were purportedly created to hold bribes from a 1991 sale of warships to Taiwan, among other shady income.
Villepin was given the list, and he asked a retired general, Philippe Rondot, to investigate it. Rondot determined it was a hoax — but the list was already making the rounds among government and judicial officials.
Villepin says he did nothing wrong. The 225-page indictment says Villepin should have alerted judicial authorities to the scam earlier.
The key defendant is a former vice president at Airbus parent company EADS, Jean-Louis Gergorin. He is accused of cooking up the scheme to discredit leading figures and is charged with "slanderous denunciations."
Villepin is accused of "complicity to slanderous denunciations" and "complicity in using forgeries" among other charges. If convicted, he could face up to five years in prison and a fine of euro375,000 ($551,437.50).
The other defendants are an accountant accused of stealing Clearstream documents used to make the faked list, Florian Bourges; an investigative journalist accused of giving the Clearstream documents to computer expert Imad Lahoud; and Lahoud, accused of doctoring the documents.
Another conservative former prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin — also questioned in the probe — supported Sarkozy in his push to get the case to trial.