PARIS — Paris has seen a run of blockbuster trials this year, involving a former dictator, a former prime minister, a huge rogue trade scandal and a billionaire heiress — and all have one thing in common. At each of the courts trying Panama’s General Noriega, French former premier Dominique de Villepin and trader Jerome Kerviel, one man has lurked: Olivier Metzner, a lawyer whose high-profile caseload has made him a celebrity. Pursued by television cameras, the 60-year-old entertained reporters and enraged witnesses and rival lawyers with his provocative style, showing a talent for courting the media and for getting under his opponents’ skin. Defending Kerviel last month, Metzner stood by calmly as he provoked lawyers, prosecutors and witnesses into fits of shouting, gazing at them quizzically over his half-moon spectacles. “I have to destabilize the opponent,” he told AFP last week at a brasserie near the courthouse where he was prosecuting Francois-Marie Banier, the man accused of defrauding billionaire L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt. At that morning’s hearing, defence lawyer Herve Temime had bellowed in anger at Metzner’s tactics, criticising him for citing as evidence sensitive secret recordings that have turned the case into a political scandal. “I don’t care,” Metzner said, between telephone calls and puffs on his Upmann Cuban cigar. “I’ve always been that way. I don’t bother any more about what other people think of me.” The trial of the year has been that of France’s former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, who was accused of plotting to smear his long-time rival Nicolas Sarkozy and wreck his presidential bid.... MORE Source: The Daily Tribune URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100705com7.html |
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29. Alam n'yo kaya na ngayon ang ika-115 na pagdiriwang ng pinakaunang
labanan ng Himagsikan bago pa man ang pangkalahataang pag-aaklas? Ngayon
unang lum...
14 years ago
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