A Paris appeals court on Wednesday acquitted former French foreign minister Roland Dumas on charges stemming from a corruption scandal at the formerly state-owned oil group Elf.

At his original trial in 2001, Dumas, now 80, had been ordered to serve six months in prison for receiving illegal gifts from his ex-mistress, Christine Deviers-Joncour, but the appeals court threw out that conviction.

Former Elf president Loik Le Floch-Prigent was sentenced to 30 months in prison and his former deputy Alfred Sirven -- the mastermind of a multimillion-dollar Elf slush fund -- was given a three-year jail sentence.

With acknowledgement to Sapa.