Former French prime minister Dominique de Villepin was cleared on Thursday of being part of a conspiracy to smear Nicolas Sarkozy and sabotage his campaign to become president in 2007.
The verdict in the so-called “Clearstream case” represents a sharp blow to Sarkozy, who had made no secret of his enmity towards the aristocratic Villepin when the two served together in the government of former president Jacques Chirac.
Villepin, who became prime minister in 2005 after stints as foreign and interior minister, had been accused of using faked documents to link Sarkozy to a corruption probe as the two angled to succeed the ageing Chirac.
He always denied the charges and said repeatedly that he was a victim of a vendetta by Sarkozy, who won power triumphantly in the 2007 election.
A judge said in a ruling read out to the court that there was no clear evidence that Villepin had tried to smear Sarkozy.
Another co-defendant was also let off, but the three other defendants, including Jean-Louis Gergorin, a former top executive at aerospace group EADS, were all found guilty of conspiracy in the case. — Reuters