PARIS - Former French interior minister Charles Pasqua, accused of taking kickbacks from Saddam Hussein's regime in the 1990s, is a veteran of the Gaullist movement and a one-time close ally of President Jacques Chirac.
Best known for a series of tough anti-immigration laws that bear his name, Pasqua, 78, is a combative lawmaker who is no stranger to controversy -- or scandal.
Born on April 18, 1927 to a Corsican family settled in southern France, Pasqua joined the French resistance in 1943. Four years later, he became a member of General Charles de Gaulle's Rally for the French People (RPF).
After studying law at university, he started his professional life as a businessman, working for Ricard, a producer of alcoholic beverages.
In the 1960s, at a time of far-right anger at De Gaulle's abandonment of French Algeria, Pasqua controlled the Gaullist movement's shadowy security service.
In 1976, he helped Chirac set up the neo-Gaullist Rally for the Republic (RPR). He remained close to the future president for years, managing his failed bid for the Elysee in 1981.
From 1981 to 1986, Pasqua served as a senator representing his Hauts-de-Seine power base west of Paris.
Pasqua first served as interior minister under Chirac's prime ministership from 1986 to 1988, and then again under Edouard Balladur from 1993 to 1995.
In the 1995 presidential election, he backed Balladur over Chirac -- a decision that cost him significant political clout and a spot in the government when Chirac triumphed.
A champion of French national sovereignty, Pasqua campaigned against the EU's Maastricht treaty in 1992, and in 1999 co-founded the Rally for France (RPF) to fight against the increasing influence of Brussels.
This year, he has actively campaigned against the European constitution. French voters will cast their ballots on the landmark EU charter in a referendum on May 29.
Up until recently, Pasqua continued to serve as president of the Hauts-de-Seine regional council.
He lost his seat in the European parliament in June 2004 but was elected as a senator, thereby granting him parliamentary immunity from prosecution.
Pasqua has been placed under judicial investigation in France in connection with two affairs: the allegedly illegal funding of the RPF, and the sale of contraband arms to Angola.
A US Senate panel on Thursday charged that Pasqua and controversial British lawmaker George Galloway had received "lucrative oil allocations" in kickbacks from Baghdad under the scandal-ridden UN oil-for-food program.
In a statement released Thursday, Pasqua denied "having received any advantages whatsoever, in any form, from the Iraqi authorities or the regime of Saddam Hussein".
05/12/2005 12:19 GMT