France's ex-prime minister Dominique de Villepin has filed a law suit against Nicolas Sarkozy after the president called him and other defendants in a smear trial "guilty".
Villepin accuses Sarkozy of violating his right to presumption of innocence when he said in a television interview last week that the "guilty parties" in the so-called Clearstream affair were on trial.
Under French law, the head of state enjoys immunity from legal action and the suit would in theory only be heard once Sarkozy is out of office.
France's most politically charged trial in years opened last week with Villepin and four other defendants accused of taking part in a plot hatched in 2003-2004 to smear Sarkozy and derail his bid for the French presidency.
Villepin and Sarkozy were then bitter rivals in the struggle for the governing right-wing party's nomination to succeed president Jacques Chirac.
Villepin described the comments as "unacceptable" and argued that Sarkozy had "an obligation to refrain from commenting" on matters before the courts.
Opposition politicians said Sarkozy's remarks made on French television were a "revealing slip of the tongue" that showed he was not impartial in the case involving his arch-rival, Villepin.
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