International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde must
stand trial in France over a 2008 arbitration ruling that handed €400m to a
politically connected business magnate, France's top court has ruled.
Ms Lagarde, who was French finance minister at the time of
the deal in favour of tycoon Bernard Tapie, is accused of negligence in the
case. She has denied any wrongdoing.
A special court ruled in December that Ms Lagarde should
stand trial, but she appealed. France's Court of Cassation has rejected the
appeal. Ms Lagarde's lawyers did not immediately respond to the decision.
Ms Lagarde, who was in China on Friday at a G20 summit, has
said she had acted "in the best interest of the French state and in full
compliance with the law".
The unusually generous 2008 arbitration deal, paid from
public funds, prompted years of legal disputes that remain unresolved.
The investigation began in 2011, soon before Ms Lagarde was
named to head the IMF in the wake of sexual assault allegations against her
predecessor, French economist Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
The executive board of the IMF has expressed confidence in
Ms Lagarde despite the investigation.
The decision last year to send her to trial came as a
surprise because a prosecutor had earlier argued that the case against her
should be dropped.
Negligence by a person invested with public authority
carries a risk of up to a year in prison and a 15,000 euro (£12,600) fine.
She will be tried at the Court of Justice of the Republic, a
special body that tries government ministers for alleged wrongdoing while in
office. A date has not been set for the trial.
The case is part of a larger legal saga centering on Mr
Tapie, a flamboyant magnate and TV star who had sued French bank Credit
Lyonnais for its handling of the sale of his majority stake in sportswear
company Adidas in the mid-1990s.
With Ms Lagarde's approval, a private arbitration panel
ruled that he should get 400 million euros (£336 million) in compensation,
including interest.
The deal was seen by critics as a sign of a too-close
relationship between magnates and the French political elite.
-Independentworld
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