French ex-envoy in oil-for-food charges

By Martin Arnold
October 14, 2005
Financial Times
Original Source:
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/3883c932-3c53-11da-94fb-00000e2511c8.html
Jean-Bernard Mérimée, France's former United Nations ambassador, has been charged with corruption and bribery of foreign officials as part of a French investigation into suspected irregularities in the Iraq oil-for-food programme.

Mr Mérimée was released on bail of ¬ 150,000 (£102,000, $180,000) after being questioned by an investigating magistrate as part of his three-year inquiry into more than 11 French officials and businessmen suspected of having received oil vouchers from Sadda
m Hussein's regime.
The investigation has been a serious blow to French diplomatic pride and a serious embarrassment for its political establishment. Le Monde said: Without prejudging the result of the inquiry, these suspicions are heavily denting the image of French diplomacy.
The career diplomat was France's permanent representative to the UN Security Council from 1991 to 1995. Martin Arnold, Paris