Lawyer’s protests postpone Chirac’s corruption trial

THE trial of former French president Jacques Chirac on corruption charges has been postponed until June.

Judge Dominique Pauthe said the trial would be suspended after a protest by a defence lawyer that a key complaint in the case was made too long ago to merit a trial now, and that it was not constitutional to combine two cases for a single trial.

The decision was an unexpected twist in a case that took years to come to court.