Chirac Names Key Ally To Legal Post

PARIS — French opposition figures yesterday attacked President Chirac's moves to nominate a key ally to the post of Paris's chief public prosecutor.

Magistrates and opposition figures decried it as a thinly veiled bid to stave off corruption charges if he loses presidential immunity next year.

Mr. Chirac's former adviser on judicial matters, Laurent Le Mesle, 55, runs the office of the justice minister, Pascal Clement, who is also an ally of Mr. Chirac. He is tipped to replace the prosecutor general, Yves Bot.

The prosecutor general has wide powers over the judicial police force and can intervene in sensitive political investigations.

The head of the Socialist Party, Francois Hollande, said the move was a clear attempt by the outgoing president to "protect himself from possible legal proceedings that could be brought against him."

Mr. Chirac stands to lose presidential immunity next May if he is not reelected.

Judges are particularly keen to question him about a scandal over fictitious jobs while he was mayor of Paris.

Seven members of the RPR Party, founded by Mr. Chirac, were illicitly on the payroll of the Paris town hall during his reign.

Mr. Chirac is also allegedly linked to the "affaire des HLM de Paris" — a complex system of bribes by companies in return for public contracts set up illegally to fund Mr. Chirac's party.