The key defendant is a former vice president at Airbus parent company EADS, Jean-Louis Gergorin. He is accused of cooking up the scheme to discredit leading figures and is charged with "slanderous denunciations." He has said he gave the fake list to judicial authorities but was acting on orders from Villepin and Chirac.
Undated file photo of former French prime minister Dominique de Villepin. [Agencies]
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The other defendants are an accountant accused of stealing Clearstream documents used to make the faked list, Florian Bourges; an investigative journalist accused of giving the Clearstream documents to computer expert Imad Lahoud; and Lahoud, accused of doctoring the documents.
At its core, though, the trial is about "the rivalry between two men," Sarkozy and Villepin, said Dominique Moisi, political scientist at the French Institute for International Relations.
"Beyond the details, which are too complex for everyone to understand ... this is a battle of political will between two French politicians. The question is, who is going to win?" he asked.
Sarkozy, 54, won the 2007 presidential election, though his approval ratings have slumped recently. Meanwhile, the Clearstream affair cast a shadow over Villepin, a diplomat whose big moment of international fame came during a UN speech in 2003 urging the United States not to invade Iraq.
Villepin, 55, left the prime minister's job when Sarkozy took over but has left open the possibility of running in the next presidential election in 2012.
About 20 witnesses are expected to testify and there are more than 40 plaintiffs in the trial, which runs through Oct. 21.
Other former French prime ministers have faced legal woes. In 2004, Alain Juppe was convicted in a corruption case that predated his time as premier. In 1999, Laurent Fabius was acquitted of manslaughter in a case of people given blood transfusions tainted with the HIV virus. Both men once were considered potential presidential candidates, and the court cases dashed the career hopes of both.