French ex-president Chirac convicted in graft trial

PARIS, (Reuters) – A judge declared French  former president Jacques Chirac guilty today of misusing  public funds, in a political graft trial that made history by  producing the first conviction of a head of state since Nazi  collaborator Marshal Philippe Petain in 1945.
In the absence of the 79-year-old who ruled from 1995 until  2007, the judge declared Chirac guilty and handed down a  suspended two-year jail sentence.
Chirac was tried on charges of diverting public money into  phantom jobs for political cronies while he was mayor of Paris  between 1977 and 1995, a time when he built a new centre-right  Gaullist party that launched his successful presidential bid.
In theory, Chirac, excused from much of the proceedings on  the grounds of failing memory, could have been sent to jail for  10 years, the maximum sentence for the charges against him.