The chief French prosecutor in the trial of Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund, has said the accusation of negligence against her was “very weak”.

Jean-Claude Marin also warned judges on Thursday that they were treading a fine line between the law and politics and should avoid confusing “criminal negligence” with “making a bad political decision”.



His comments came on the fourth day of the hearing in which Lagarde, 60, is charged over her role in a controversial €400m (£335m) payment to a businessman and friend of the former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, in whose government she served between 2007 and 2011.

Lagarde said on the opening day she had “no intention of remaining silent” and would defend herself.

Marin told the special court: “The hearings have not backed up a very weak charge.”



Investigators have spent years attempting to establish if Lagarde, who was then finance minister, was acting under orders from the Elysée or whether she favoured Bernard Tapie because he had supported Sarkozy’s successful 2007 presidential campaign.



Lagarde, 60, has always denied any wrongdoing in referring the case to a private arbitration panel that awarded the massive compensation to Tapie, against the recommendation of her advisers. In a case that has dragged on for two decades, Tapie claimed he was defrauded by the part state-owned Crédit Lyonnais bank in the sale of his sports company, Adidas.



Lagarde insisted she had not seen all the notes and advice sent to her office, claiming many were dealt with by her ministerial team. Her former chief of staff Stéphane Richard, now president of the telecoms company Orange, is among six others under investigation for fraud. Richard has also denied committing any crime.



Tapie has since been ordered to repay the money, a decision he is appealing against.



Marin told the court on Thursday that the charges that could lead to Lagarde being condemned for criminal negligence with public money had “not come together”. The prosecutor had previously expressed his opposition to Lagarde being put on trial but was overruled by the three judges.



“It’s for you to decide where is the thin line between politics and law,” Marin told the bench, which is sitting with 12 politicians from the two houses of parliament. The special court was set up to try alleged criminal offences committed by officials while in office.



The charge of negligence causing a misuse of public funds by a person in authority carries a sentence of up to a year in prison and a €15,000 fine.



The court is expected to give its verdict on Monday.

