Former French president Jacque Chirac was found guilty of diverting public funds and abusing public trust by a court Thursday. Chirac, 79, was given a two-year suspended sentence; he did not appear in court because of ill health, but he denied any wrongdoing. The charges date back to his time as mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995. (He was president from 1995 to 2007.) He is accused to paying members of his own Rally for the Republic party for city jobs that did not exist.
