A certain French EU commissioner who shall remain nameless for legal reasons - the author resides in France where mention of this affair is "strictement interdit" - was pardoned for his involvement in a scheme to take steal a large chunk of government money to use as political party funds. Interestingly under French law one is not allowed to mention the crime for which someone was convicted once the offense has been pardoned. This is truly bizarre and has some interesting side-effects.
In this case the beneficiary of the pardon is now claiming that he would have appealed his conviction except for the fact that he knew a pardon was in the offing so he didn't bother. Now of course if this is true (and if he really was innocent) because he was pardoned he is now in a worse position than before because everyone assumes, not without reason, that he is in fact a thieving politician with his hand in the till who has been let off in some quid pro quo by M L'escroc Le Président J Chirac, a gentleman who is undoubtledly hoping for the same favour when he gets to face the music about having his hand in the till.
Another interesting question is how many other crookspolicitians have also been pardoned for having their hands in the till. Since the French news is prohibited from mentioning their now spotless record none of them have any need to worry until they get selected for some international post or other, however as the comissioner has learned, in the age of Internet stopping that knowledge entering France is rather difficult, indeed a google search turns up rather alotofsites mentioning the fact. If it were to turn out, as seems rather likely, that future Frnech nominations to international bodies will undergo the same background checks one wonders whether French former politicians will be quite so keen to get on board so many international gravy-trains...
One of the interesting defenses of the widespread corruption scandals in France is that the crookspolicitians concerned have never personally benefitted from the dosh that they have stolen, rather it has gone into party funds to help re-election. Funnily enough though the people whom thee party funds help re-elect are - guess what - the aforementioned crooks. So while it is true that the money itself didn't pay for the châteaux, yachts and mistresses of the politicians it did enable them to continue to benefit from their generous governmental salaries instead of being forced onto the chômage (dole) or, God forbid, actually getting a job as a productive member of society.
Of course this routine criminality in the ranks of the rulers of France may possibly explain why they saw nothing wrong with chaps like Arafat or Saddam Hussein pocketing billions of dollars themselves. One suspects that the primary emotion felt in French political circles to the revelations that Hussein looks to have trousered some $21 billion is envy and jealousy that he managed to get away with it and may also explain why they seem to like Mrs Arafat so much.