PARIS-A former top aide to President Jacques Chirac, charged in a corruption scandal, was freed on $40,500 bail yesterday after five days in a Paris prison.
Michel Roussin, who worked for Chirac when the president was mayor of Paris, had been held since last Friday after being placed under investigation. The arrest of Roussin, 61, triggered a spate of headlines about an illegal party financing scandal that has embarrassed Chirac. The president has declined to speak about the affair.
Roussin has been charged with complicity in the corruption scandal, in which Chirac’s conservative Rally for the Republic party, among others, are alleged to have accepted bribes from construction companies that were then handed contracts to renovate Paris-area schools.
Judicial sources said last week that some $3.7 billion in contracts were arranged. The nerve center of the operation was allegedly Paris City Hall.
