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Former French prime minister Dominique de Villepin appeared in court as witness on Thursday for the Pakistani bombing attack that killed 11 French nationals in 2002.

France's former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin (C) leaves the Paris court financial crimes section on November 25, 2010 in Paris, after a hearing. De Villepin met judge Van Ruymbeke today to testify on the Karachi affair. Villepin, on 22 November, denied any link between arms deals and the deaths of 11 French engineers in a bombing in Pakistan in 2002. [Xinhua]

The hearing started in the afternoon in the Paris superior court and lasted several hours. It was chaired by Judge Renaud van Ruymbeke, who decided in October to investigate the allegation of kickbacks in a submarine contract between France and Pakistan related to the deadly bombing.

The victims' families filed a civil suit last week against former French president Jacques Chirac on the charge of "manslaughter."

Recent investigation indicated that the stop of kickbacks payment ordered by then president Chirac was probably the fuse triggering the revenge action from benefit takers of the contract.

Fourteen people including 11 French engineers working for DCNS in Karachi to implement a France-Pakistan contract of building submarines died from a suicide bombing against their bus in May 2002.

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