PARIS (AFP) - The French Senate on Wednesday lifted immunity for a billionaire senator, Serge Dassault, clearing the way for the prominent industrialist to be charged with alleged vote-buying.
The examining magistrates who had requested the lifting of Dassault's immunity from prosecution will now be able to take the 88-year-old into custody for interrogation over allegations dating from his time as mayor of Corbeil-Essonnes, a Paris suburb he has been accused of running like a mafia Godfather.