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© Agence France-Presse/Benoit Tessier/ReutersFormer French president Jacques Chirac said he will not appeal his conviction.
Chirac gets suspended sentence; Charges involve 'ghost employees' paid when he was mayor of Paris

Shamed former French leader Jacques Chirac was found guilty of corruption and given a suspended jail sentence on Thursday, becoming France's first expresident to be convicted for his crimes.

The 79-year-old statesman, who was excused from court on medical grounds, was found guilty of influence peddling, breach of trust and embezzlement between 1990 and 1995, when as mayor of Paris he employed ghost workers.

In their ruling, judges said Chirac's criminal conduct had cost Paris taxpayers the equivalent of $1.8 million.

"Jacques Chirac breached the duty of trust that weighs on public officials charged with caring for public funds or property, in contempt of the general interest of Parisians," the ruling said.

He is the first former or serving president of modern France to be tried, although Nazi-era collaborationist leader Philippe Pétain was convicted of treason.

Chirac lawyer Jean Veil said the former leader had received the judgment "with serenity" and added: "He's satisfied that at least the court ha s accepted that he did not personally profit from this."

In a statement released later Thursday Chirac said he would not appeal the court's decision while adding: "I categorically contest this judgment."

"I do not have anymore the necessary strength to bring myself, before new judges, to fight for the truth," Chirac said in the statement.

"I am aware also that what is at stake is not only the honour of a man, but the dignity of the presidency ...," he said, adding that he leaves it to the French people "who know who I am: an honest man" who worked only for "the grandeur of France and for peace."

The verdict marked the end of a long legal drama. France's current foreign minister, Alain Juppé, was convicted in the same case in 2004 but has since returned to public life and is an ally of Chirac's successor Nicolas Sarkozy.

Thursday's sentence was a surprise. Even state prosecutors had called for Chirac - who still polls as one of France's most popular figures - to be cleared, and France has largely forgiven his long history of corruption.

"I hope this judgment won't change the profound affection that the French people still rightly have for Jacques Chirac," defence counsel Georges Kiejman said.

Prime Minister François Fillon said the case had taken too long to resolve, with the ruling falling two decades after the crimes.

"I don't think this decision will alter the personal relationship that exists between Jacques Chirac and the French people," he said.

Chirac was president of France between 1995 and 2007 and enjoyed legal immunity while in office. He denied all the charges, but the case is only one of many corruption scandals to have dogged him in a long public career.

Doctors say he has "severe and irreversible" neurological problems including memory loss and dementia linked to his advanced age.

He was tried alongside nine alleged accomplices. Two were cleared, but the rest were convicted of helping Chirac run a system at Paris city hall under which political allies were paid municipal salaries for fake jobs.

He was convicted of hiring members of his political party, then known as the Rally for the Republic (RPR) for non-existent municipal jobs, using the civic payroll to employ his own campaign staff.

Source: Agence France-Presse