Chirac corruption trial can go ahead, court rules

THE corruption trial of France’s former president Jacques Chirac can go ahead, a top appeals court ruled, rejecting a constitutional challenge.

Lawyers for one of the co-defendants of Chirac, who is accused of embezzling public funds as mayor of Paris in the 1990s, had argued some of the charges were unconstitutional under the statute of limitations.

The country’s highest appeals court ruled, however, that the constitutional concerns raised, which caused the trial to be postponed on its second day in March, were not valid.