Jean Germain, a French senator and former mayor of Tours, was found dead Tuesday after failing to show up at the start of his trial. He was accused of letting a Taiwanese businesswoman defraud the city in the so-called "Chinese weddings" scandal.

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Jean Germain, 67, who had been mayor of Tours from 1995 to 2014 and was also a serving Socialist senator, was voted out of office last year in the wake of the scandal.

Co-accused Lise Han, a Taiwanese businesswoman employed by the city to promote “relationships with China”, allegedly used her position to make tens of thousands of euros for herself. She is accused of fraud, collusion and mishandling public funds.

Han was the brainchild behind schemes that included inviting groups of Chinese newly-weds to visit Tours and the surrounding Loire Valley, and “remarry” in fake ceremonies presided over by Germain. The fake weddings took place between 2007 and 2011.

While the fake ceremonies were not illegal, Han, who was a full-time employee of Tours city hall, is accused of enriching herself at the local taxpayer’s expense by continuing to run firm Time-Lotus Bleu, subcontracted to the city to organise the tours.

Germain, who claimed he was unaware of Han’s “lies and manipulations”, was due to stand trial for complicity in the misappropriation of public funds.

The trial was due to open in Tours on Tuesday morning. It was suspended when Germain failed to attend, and his lawyer Dominique Tricaud subsequently read a note that had been found in the politician’s car.

“I have never defrauded the city for a single cent, nor made myself rich, and I have always worked for what I believed was in the best interests of the people of Tours,” Germain wrote, adding that he believed his trial was “politically motivated”.

“There are people for whom dishonour and injustice are unbearable.”

Police said they found Germain’s body near his home shortly after the lawyer's statement. According to local prosecutor Jean-Luc Beck, the initial investigation confirmed the senator had taken his own life using a hunting rifle.

News of Germain's death has shocked France's political establishment. His colleagues at the Senate held a moment of silence to honour his memory on Tuesday, while President Francois Hollande expressed his sadness, saying Germain had taken his own life "because he didn't want his honor sullied".

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