Jean-Christophe Mitterrand
Encyclopedia
Jean-Christophe Mitterrand (born December 19, 1946) is the son of former French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 president François Mitterrand
François Mitterrand
François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the only figure from the left so far elected President...

. He was an advisor to his father on Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

n affairs from 1986 to 1992, and earned the nickname
Nickname
A nickname is "a usually familiar or humorous but sometimes pointed or cruel name given to a person or place, as a supposedly appropriate replacement for or addition to the proper name.", or a name similar in origin and pronunciation from the original name....

 Papamadit (which translates as "Papa-told-me") in Africa.

Life and career

Mitterrand was born in Boulogne-Billancourt
Boulogne-Billancourt
Boulogne-Billancourt is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. Boulogne-Billancourt is a sub-prefecture of the Hauts-de-Seine department and the seat of the Arrondissement of Boulogne-Billancourt....

, Hauts-de-Seine
Hauts-de-Seine
Hauts-de-Seine is designated number 92 of the 101 départements in France. It is part of the Île-de-France region, and covers the western inner suburbs of Paris...

. He was a press correspondent for the Agence France Presse in 1975 in Mauritania
Mauritania
Mauritania is a country in the Maghreb and West Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in the west, by Western Sahara in the north, by Algeria in the northeast, by Mali in the east and southeast, and by Senegal in the southwest...

.

Angolagate

In the 1990s, he, along with Russian businessman Arcadi Gaydamak
Arcadi Gaydamak
Arcadi Aleksandrovich Gaydamak, is a Russian-Israeli businessman, who was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honour. On April 29, 2011 the Court of Appeal in Paris acquitted him of charges of arms dealing...

, were implicated in the Angolagate
Angolagate
Angolagate, also known as the Mitterrand-Pasqua affair, is an international political scandal over the secret sale and shipment of arms from Central Europe to the government of Angola by the Government of France in the 1990s...

 arms dealing scandal. He was indicted in 1993 by the French justice in this case, suspected of having used his influence to help the arms-dealer Pierre Falcone
Pierre Falcone
Pierre Falcone is a member of Angola's delegation to UNESCO, and holds the rank of Minister Counsellor. He is married to artist and socialite Sonia Falcone....

 sell Russian weapons to José Eduardo dos Santos
José Eduardo dos Santos
José Eduardo dos Santos is an Angolan politician who has been the second and current President of Angola since 1979. As President, José Eduardo dos Santos is also the commander in chief of the Angolan Armed Forces and president of the MPLA , the party that has been ruling Angola since...

's government. On December 22, 2000, he was imprisoned in the Santé prison in Paris, on orders of the magistrate Philippe Courroye, on charges of "complicity of arms traffic, trafic d'influence [i.e. corruption
Political corruption
Political corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by...

] and trafic d'influence aggravé." He was suspected of having received important sums of money in 1993 and 1994 for his role as an intermediary in this contract, and has recognized having received US$ 1,8 million (13 million Francs) from the Brenco on a Swiss bank account — although he denied any participation to an arms deal.

He was freed three weeks later, on January 11, 2001, after his mother, Danielle Mitterrand
Danielle Mitterrand
Danielle Mitterrand was the wife of French President François Mitterrand, and president of the foundation France Libertés Fondation Danielle Mitterrand.-Biography:...

, managed to pay a caution of 5 million francs (762,000 euros). However, he was indicted again on July 4, 2001, on charges of "complicity of arms traffic" by the magistrates Philippe Courroye and Isabelle Prévost-Desprez, following a complaint filed in January 2001 by the Socialist Minister of Defence
Minister of Defence (France)
The Minister of Defense and Veterans Affairs is the French government cabinet member charged with running the military of France....

 Alain Richard
Alain Richard
Alain Richard, born on 29 August 1945, in Paris, is a French politician. An alumnus of the Ecole nationale d'administration, he was mayor of Saint-Ouen-l'Aumône and member of the French parliament, elected in Val d'Oise. A member of the French socialist party and ally of Lionel Jospin, he was the...

.

He was again indicted on October 17, 2001, for corruption by investigative judge Courroye, suspected of having received US$ 300,000 from the Brenco in payment of councils to Falcone. On the eve of this new indictment, he himself had filed a complaint against Courroye accusing of him of having made a "false" document in July 2000 (because Courroye had put the date of 3 July for an ordinance drafted on 5 July) — but this manoeuver did not succeed in cancelling the procedure.

According to a financial expertise transmitted in May 2004 to the judge Courroye, Pierre Falcone paid Jean-Christophe Mitterrand 2,2 million dollars.

On January 13, 2006, the Court of Appeal of Paris confirmed the initial sentence. On October 27, 2006, the Court of Cassation
Court of Cassation (France)
The French Supreme Court of Judicature is France's court of last resort having jurisdiction over all matters triable in the judicial stream but only scope of review to determine a miscarriage of justice or certify a question of law based solely on points of law...

 rejected Mitterrand's appeal, and confirmed his a 30 months prison sentence on probation
Probation
Probation literally means testing of behaviour or abilities. In a legal sense, an offender on probation is ordered to follow certain conditions set forth by the court, often under the supervision of a probation officer...

, along with a euros 600,000 fine for tax evasion
Tax evasion
Tax evasion is the general term for efforts by individuals, corporations, trusts and other entities to evade taxes by illegal means. Tax evasion usually entails taxpayers deliberately misrepresenting or concealing the true state of their affairs to the tax authorities to reduce their tax liability,...

 (fraude fiscale) — because of 600,000 euros received from Falcone but not declared to the Fisc
Fisc
Under the Merovingians and Carolingians, the fisc applied to the royal demesne which paid taxes, entirely in kind, from which the royal household was meant to be supported, though it rarely was...

tax administration.
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