Cresson accused of taking bribes in Elf trial
By Lisbeth Kirk
Former EU Commissioner Edith Cresson on Monday saw herself involved in one of the biggest corruption scandals in France, when she was accused of taking bribes from the French oil giant's Elf-Aquitaine.
The corruption trial has a double impact on the former French prime minister, who became the first former Commissioner to be charged with corruption, when, in March 2003, she was charged by the Belgian authorities with counterfeiting and benefiting from professional contracts.
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The Elf trial so far has concentrated on two testimonies from key witnesses. Two former, unnamed German ministers were paid to secure the French oil giant's Elf-Aquitaine purchase of the Leuna refinery in east Germany in 1992, according to the former general affairs manager of Elf, Alfred Sirven, who gave evidence in a Paris Court on Monday.
The trial has also heard allegations that the oil company secretly funded political parties.
Alfred Sirven said in court on Monday the Elf executive chief Loik Le Floch-Prigent had instructed him to pay the bribes.
"I paid German personalities and French ones too, and I was acting on the instructions of Loik Le Floch-Prigent. There were two former German ministers and the company Sisie [owned by Cresson]", Mr Sirven said, according to Reuters and quoted by NZoom.com. Mr Sirven did not name the German ministers.
Elf was later privatised and integrated into French oil giant TotalFinaElf.