French judge rails at 'censoring' of her book on corruption

  Eva Joly, one of the most feared and tenacious investigating
  magistrates in France until she retired last year, has 
  provoked a political and legal storm by writing a book 
  describing the death threats and other pressures she says she
  endured while investigating the pillaging of billions of 
  francs from the Elf oil company.

  This week her book was banned for three weeks by a French 
  court (which was chaired by a judge whom she criticises in 
  the text).

  Yesterday, Mme Joly, 59, led a group of 14 judges and 
  corruption investigators from around the world in making a
  "Declaration of Paris", which accuses Western banks and 
  multinational companies of being "at the heart of" an
  international network of "grand corruption".

  Her book, Est-ce dans ce monde là que nous voulons vivre? (Is
  this the world in which we want to live?), has been banned 
  until 7 July, when the Elf trial in Paris will end. More than
  a score of former Elf executives and their business
  associates are accused of embezzling at least €2bn from the 
  company when it was owned by the state in the late 1980s and
  early 1990s. The evidence against them was largely unearthed
  by Mme Joly and two other investigating magistrates in a long
  inquiry, marked, she says, by political obstruction and death
  threats.

  Mme Joly says she was frequently impeded by other members of 
  the French judiciary. One of the judges she criticised was the
  chairman of the court that delayed publication of her book.

  The French justice system is under attack on several fronts.
  Another court decided on Wednesday to abandon all criminal
  investigation of a dozen senior officials accused of 
  covering up, for commercial reasons, in the late 1980s the
  fact that blood banks were tainted by the Aids virus.

  Relatives of those who caught HIV from blood transfusions 
  complained, in anguished terms, that the legal system had taken
  almost 20 years to decide to do nothing.

  There has also been criticism of a court decision, also on 
  Wednesday, to clear the central bank governor, Jean-Claude
  Trichet, of approving falsified accounts for the struggling
  state-owned bank, Crédit Lyonnais, in the early 1990s.

  Mme Joly now heads an anti-corruption campaign in Norway. In
  her "Declaration of Paris", joined by investigators from Italy,
  Switzerland, Spain, Canada and other countries, she called on
  Western governments to take more seriously their declared 
  commitment to root out high-level corruption and money 
  laundering.

  By John Lichfield in Paris
  20 June 2003

  http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=417128

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