French prosecutors said Tuesday that President Jacques Chirac could be called as a witness in an investigation into how he came to pay 307,000 dollars (361,000 euros) in cash for air fares.
In a preliminary report sent to senior colleagues, Paris prosecutor Jean-Pierre Dintilhac, said that the president could be heard as an "assisted witness" in the matter.
Prosecutors are studying evidence relating to around 20 trips abroad made by Chirac, aides and family members between 1992 and 1995, amid suspicions the money may have come from illegal commissions paid to his RPR party.
Chirac's office refused to comment Dintilhac's report, but a senior member of his party attacked what he described as an attempt to drag the head of state into a legal investigation less than one year before he stands for re-election.
"Getting involved in this debate one year before the presidential elections seems annoyingly like hitting a man below the belt," said Jean-Francois Cope, the assistant national secretary of Chirac's Gaullist RPR said.
Under French law an "assisted witness" is an intermediary stage between being a simple witness, who theoretically faces no chance of prosecution, and being placed under formal investigation ahead of criminal charges.
In order to call an assisted witness, who has the right to be accompanied by counsel, there must be "evidence indicating it is reasonable to believe that he has participated, as an actor or and accomplice, in the committing of offences." -- PARIS (AFP)
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