Former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin was acquitted by an appeals court Wednesday of charges he took part in a murky smear campaign against his arch rival, President Nicolas Sarkozy, paving the way for the

eloquent former diplomat to become a potentially damaging nuisance to Sarkozy in next year’s presidential election.

FRENCH President Nicolas Sarkozy faces a fresh headache in his bid for re-election after his arch rival Dominique de Villepin was definitively acquitted of seeking to smear him Wednesday.

Wednesday’s acquittal caps the pitched six-year-long battle between Villepin — who is best known internationally for his impassioned 2003 United Nation speech against the United States’ invasion of Iraq — and Sarkozy, a fellow conservative.

“After six years of unprecedented fighting tooth and nail, after six years of difficulties for my family, the justice system has recognized my innocence for a second time,” the silver-haired politician told a scrum of journalists outside the courtroom.

The public prosecutor had called for Jacques Chirac’s former prime minister to be given a 15-month suspended sentence in the so-called Clearstream scandal.

That would have ended his hopes to take on Sarkozy in next April’s presidential elections at the helm of the Republique Solidaire party he founded last year.

Sarkozy, a civil plaintiff in the original trial, reportedly swore to “hang on a butcher’s hook” whoever tried to discredit him by placing his name on a falsified list of Luxembourg bank accounts wrongly linked to money laundering.

Prosecutors had considered that while Villepin did not initiate the conspiracy to smear Sarkozy with falsified documents, he was an “accomplice by abstention” as he failed to do anything to stop the plot.

But a French appeals court Wednesday upheld last year’s acquittal of charges of complicity in slander, paving the way for the eloquent former diplomat to become a potentially damaging nuisance to Sarkozy, whose approval ratings are at record lows. Neither man has officially launched his campaign but both are expected to run.

Sarkozy and Villepin’s rivalry grew out of their time as ministers in Chirac’s cabinet, where both were considered top contenders for the presidency.

“I want to salute the independence of our judiciary which has held out against political pressure,” an emotional Villepin declared after the verdict, suggesting that the case had been politically motivated.

“I’d like to believe that this decision will help make our old country less vulnerable to rumor and slander,” he said.

“How I would like this to be a lesson for the 2012 presidential election.”

This was a reference to allegations over the weekend that he and Chirac, his former mentor, received US$20 million of cash stuffed into briefcases from African leaders, mainly to fund elections. A preliminary inquiry into the allegations by lawyer Robert Bourgi has been opened. Villepin and Chirac have both indicated they plan to file defamation complaints.

Polls suggest Villepin would muster only 2 to 4 percent of the vote if he runs for president. However, Sarkozy’s chances of reaching the final round of elections recede with every right-winger who enters the race.

Villepin was born in Rabat, Morocco and spent some time in Venezuela, where his family lived for four years.

Villepin’s family derives from the middle class. His father Xavier de Villepin, now retired, was a diplomat and a member of the Senate. Villepin speaks French, English and Spanish.

At the end of his university studies, he completed his military service as a navy officer on board the Aircraft Carrier Clemenceau and then entered a career in diplomacy.

He has worked in French embassy in Washington, D.C. (1984-1989), French embassy in New Delhi (1989-1992) and Foreign Ministry’s top adviser on Africa (1992-1993).

Villepin was introduced to Chirac in the early 1980s and became one of his advisers on foreign policy. In 1993 he became chief of staff of Alain Juppe, the foreign minister in Edouard Balladur’s cabinet, and Chirac’s political heir apparent.

Villepin then became director of Chirac’s successful 1995 presidential campaign and was rewarded with the key job of secretary-general of the Elysee Palace. He advised the president to hold an early general election in 1997, while the French National Assembly was overwhelmingly dominated by the president’s party. This was a risky gamble, and Chirac’s party went on to lose the elections.

Villepin offered Chirac his resignation afterwards, but was turned down. This increased the perception among many politicians on the right that Villepin was aloof and had no experience or understanding of grassroots politics, and owed his enviable position only to being Chirac’s protege.

Villepin has an uneasy relationship with the members of his own political side. He has in the past made a number of demeaning remarks on members of parliament from his own party. In addition, his distaste for Sarkozy is well-known.

He was appointed foreign minister by Chirac in the cabinet of Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin in 2002.

During the 2004 crisis in Haiti, Villepin once again showed himself to be a resolute decision-maker, obtaining the backing of the United States Secretary of State, Colin Powell, in his bid to solve the crisis by ousting Jean-Bertrand Aristide from power.

During mid-2003, Villepin organized an operation to rescue his former student, Ingrid Betancourt, who was being held by FARC rebels in Colombia. The operation failed, and because he had neither informed Colombia, Brazil, nor President Chirac of the mission, it resulted in a political scandal.

During the cabinet reshuffle that made Sarkozy finance minister, Villepin was appointed to replace him as interior minister March 31, 2004.

Chirac was at one point thought to have turned his eye on Villepin as a possible successor, assuming that he himself would not enter the 2007 presidential contest. However, Sarkozy was chosen to represent the centre-right UMP party.

On May 29, 2005, French voters in the referendum on the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe turned down the proposed document by a wide margin. Two days later, Raffarin resigned and Chirac appointed Villepin as prime minister.

There was speculation that Villepin might be a candidate in the 2007 presidential election; however, Sarkozy was selected unopposed as the UMP’s presidential candidate Jan. 14, 2007. On March 12, 2007, Villepin formally endorsed Sarkozy for president.

(SD-Agencies)

“Villepin is the last Svengali to shape Chirac’s brain.”

— Anne-Elisabeth Moutet

French journalist and commentator