*PARIS: *
Former French prime minister Edouard Balladur goes on trial Tuesday oncharges that he used kickbacks from arms deals in the 1990s to fund apresidential bid, a case known as the “Karachi affair”.
Balladur, 91, joins a long list of senior French politicians pursued foralleged financial wrongdoing, including former president Nicolas Sarkozyand his predecessor, Jacques Chirac.
The conservative ex-premier will be tried by the Court of Justice of theRepublic in Paris, a tribunal dedicated to hearing cases of ministerialmisconduct.
Also in the dock will be his former defence minister Francois Leotard, 78,though his presence at the trial’s opening is uncertain because of illness.
Balladur will appear in court Tuesday “to face his judges and answer theirquestions,” his lawyer Felix de Belloy said.
The two men were charged in 2017 with “complicity in the misuse ofcorporate assets” over the sale of submarines to Pakistan and frigates toSaudi Arabia between 1993 and 1995, when Balladur was prime minister in thefinal years of Francois Mitterrand’s presidency.
The kickbacks are estimated at 13 million francs, now worth some2.8-million-euros ($3.3 million), after accounting for inflation.
The sum is believed to have included a cash injection of about 10 millionfrancs to Balladur’s 1995 unsuccessful presidential campaign against Chirac.
Read Six jailed in Paris over ‘Karachi affair’link
Balladur, who also has to answer to a charge that he concealed the crimes,has denied any wrongdoing, saying the 10 million francs came from the saleof T-shirts and other items at campaign rallies.
The claims came to light during an investigation into a 2002 bombing inKarachi, Pakistan, which targeted a bus transporting French engineers.
Fifteen people were killed, including 11 engineers working on the submarinecontract.
The Al-Qaeda terror network was initially suspected of the attack.
But the focus later shifted to the arms deal as investigators consideredwhether the bombing may have been revenge for Chirac’s decision to halt thecommission payments for the arms deals shortly after he beat Balladur inthe presidential vote.
*Six already sentenced*
Leotard is accused of having created an “opaque network” of intermediariesfor the contracts signed with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
The ex-premier also stands charged with instructing the budget ministry –led at the time by Sarkozy — to approve state guarantees for “deficient orunderfunded” contracts, because of the alleged kickbacks.
Investigators say that cash deposits in Balladur’s campaign fund coincidedwith trips to Switzerland by Ziad Takieddine, a Lebanese-Frenchintermediary who has long been active in French rightwing circles.
Takieddine fled to Lebanon last June after a Paris court sentenced him andanother middleman, Abdul Rahman El-Assir, to five years in prison overtheir role in the “Karachi” kickbacks.
Balladur’s former campaign manager Nicolas Bazire was given a three-yearsentence by the same court, as did Leotard’s adviser Renaud Donnedieu deVabres.
Thierry Gaubert, an adviser to Sarkozy at the finance ministry, and aformer executive at state-owned naval contractor DCN (since renamed NavalGroup) got two-year sentences. All have appealed the rulings.
Takieddine told judges in 2013 that he participated in the secret financingof Balladur’s campaign after being asked by Bazire and Gaubert, though heretracted the claim six years later.
In November, Takieddine also took back his claim that he deliveredsuitcases carrying a total of five-million-euros ($6 million) from Libyandictator Moamer Kadhafi to Sarkozy’s chief of staff in 2006 and 2007, tohelp his successful presidential campaign.
Sarkozy has denied the allegations, and investigations into the case arecontinuing. -APP/AFP