A woman of conviction: Eva Joly

Fraudsters quake when they come under one Scandinavian
woman's scrutiny. JOHN LITCHFIELD talks to Eva Joly.

How does "a little girl from the mountains of Norway" - Eva Joly's smiling description of herself - end up as European of the Year? It is a remarkable story but Joly, aged 58, is a remarkable woman. She came to France as an au pair. She became one of the country's most feared and successful, and famously unsmiling, investigating magistrates.

She was the woman who helped to bring down, among others, Bernard Tapie (a corrupt businessman, turned corrupt politician and corrupt football boss) and Roland Dumas (a former socialist foreign minister, convicted last year of taking bribes from France's largest company).

Joly has been named European of the Year by the European editions of Reader's Digest for her work - begun at the age of 50 - investigating corruption among the most powerful and arrogant figures in France. The award could not have been better timed.

The resignation in frustration this month of Eric Halphen, a magistrate who had spent seven years investigating wrong-doing in President Jacques Chirac's political party, seemed to suggest that the tide had turned against the judges who have uncovered systematic corruption at almost all levels of French politics in the past decade.

There are suggestions, from some politicians on the right, and some senior members of the judiciary, that it is time to abolish the 562 independent, "juges d'instruction" or examining magistrates - such as Eva Joly - who lead all but the most straightforward, criminal investigations in France.

In an interview with The Independent - the only interview she agreed to give in connection with her award - Joly would not comment on Halphen's resignation directly but said: "What we are seeing now, is a change in the wind: a concerted attempt, by some politicians, by some in the press, by some in the judiciary, to try to persuade the people of France that their country is threatened, not by corrupt politicians or businessmen, but by the judges investigating corruption.

"It is important to resist that campaign. Corruption is a threat to the values of democracy and freedom and equality - and especially equality before the law - which our country stands for."

Joly believes that an "ocean of corruption" existed in France up to the early 1990s. Has anything changed in the past decade? "Yes, I think the few convictions that have been achieved have had an important, symbolic effect. The complete sense of impunity which existed 10 years ago has gone. Younger generations of politicians think twice now before becoming involved in corruption. They know that they risk losing something which they value - their liberty."

Overall, though, Joly says she believes that "95 per cent" of corrupt practices in France have never successfully been brought to court.

"But we should not just talk of France. Look at Argentina, where billions of dollars have left the country illegally. Look at Italy, where the Prime Minister is trying to remove a judge who is investigating him. Look at the Enron affair in the United States.

"Corruption, like everything else, is a question of supply and demand. The demand for corruption remains immense. The supply remains immense. And the ease with which money can move across borders undetected makes it easier than ever to get away with it."

Joly points out that the total illegally laundered in the world each year - for political corruption, terrorism, drugs, tax-evasion, embezzlement - is estimated at $US1000 billion, the equivalent of all the cash in circulation in the US.

Gro Eva Forseth was 20 years old when she came to Paris to study French and work as an au pair in 1964. She fell in love with and married the eldest son in the family in which she worked. He studied to become a doctor; she worked as a secretary and studied law in the evenings.

When her two children grew up, she took an examination to become an investigating magistrate and, in 1993, became a member of a team of anti-fraud magistrates in Paris. Her husband died last year.

Although she speaks technically excellent French, Joly does so with a pronounced Norwegian lilt. One can imagine the fury of a French mandarin such as Roland Dumas, who is known for his silken command of the language, at being investigated by a tough, little woman with a Scandinavian accent.

Joly believes that her Norwegian origins helped her. Unlike generations of investigating magistrates before her, she was not part of, or easily browbeaten by, the self-perpetuating elites in France.

"When you are a little girl from the mountains of Norway," she said, "you are not easily impressed by all the glories of Spain."

Joly also hopes that she may be emblematic of the future of fraud-busting in Europe and the world. As corruption becomes increasingly international, she says, so must the policing of corruption, starting with a pan-European fraud squad within the European Union.

"I hope that I am a precedent for the Europe of tomorrow when there will be French policemen investigating in Germany and Belgian judges working in Spain. I hope."

- INDEPENDENT