Former French president Jacques Chirac has asked to be excused from attending his corruption trial on medical grounds.
Mr Chirac, 78, is accused of unlawfully using public money to pay members of his political party while he was mayor of Paris in the early 1990s. He denies the charges.
According to a medical report attached to Mr Chirac's letter to the court, he is in a vulnerable mental state such that he cannot reliably answer questions about his past.
However, the letter said, the former president wants the trial to go ahead and has asked that his lawyers be allowed to speak on his behalf.
The judge will decide what course to take at the start of the trial on Monday.
