France «Elf affair» Oil Scandal

Roland Dumas and other high-profile defendants have been in court for two weeks to appeal 2001 convictions in a widespread network of kickbacks at former state-owned oil company Elf Aquitaine.

The Elf affair, as it is called in France, linked politicians and business leaders to a multimillion dollar kickback scheme in which company slush funds were used to buy influence in France and abroad.

Prosecutors say Dumas' ex-mistress, 55-year-old Christine Deviers-Joncour, a former model, was hired by Elf to serve as a liaison with the Foreign Ministry in order to influence Dumas. Dumas said he never intervened to have her hired.

The scandal has many facets, but this trial focuses on Deviers-Joncour's job and on the lavish gifts she is accused of giving Dumas on Elf's money, including thirteen antique statues and a pair of handcrafted boots worth 1,600 euros (US$1,590).

Dumas said he didn't know the statues or the boots were bought with Elf's money. Deviers-Joncour did bid on statues for him at an auction because he was away at a summit, Dumas said. However, he had asked for five statues _ she turned up with 13.

At the 2001 trial, Dumas was convicted of illegally receiving gifts and cash from Elf Aquitaine while serving as foreign minister. He was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison, of which two years were suspended. Other defendants were also convicted on corruption-related charges.

Dumas, a former Resistance fighter, rose through political ranks to join the inner circle of the late Socialist President Francois Mitterrand and become an elite figure of the French left.