CONTINUING TO THUMB HIS NOSE AT THE EUROPEAN UNION, Jacques Chirac is entertaining Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe despite European sanctions that are supposed to bar such visits. But there’s a twist:

Peter Tatchell, the human rights campaigner, has formally launched a bid to put Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean president, on trial in Paris for torture. . . .

Mr Tatchell filed his formal complaint with the French authorities just as Mr Mugabe arrived in Paris to attend a Franco-Africa summit. The two men are old adversaries. The last time they met Mr Tatchell was beaten up and left in a Brussels gutter after trying to intercept the president in a hotel lobby.

That’s our Jacques — soft on dictators, but tough on people who don’t like dictators. At least, he’s soft on dictators who might enter into lucrative oil deals, or lease French airplanes!

UPDATE: Here’s more on Chirac. Reader Chris Fountain emails that he’s disappointed with Chirac’s simplistic unilateralism.