French court sentences six to jail over kickbacks from arms sales to Pakistan, Saudi

A Paris court convicted three former French government officials along with three others for involvement in millions of euros of kickbacks in arms sales to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Commonly known as ‘Karachigate’, the Agosta Submarine scandal was a major military scandal in the early 90s which involved massive kickbacks between France and Pakistan over negotiations to acquire submarines.

In 1994, the murky deal was signed between the then Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and French president François Mitterrand. After eight years, 11 French engineers were killed in a suicide bombing in Karachi, Pakistan. Initially, the killings were considered as a terrorist attack but further investigations linked it to the submarine sales.

According to media reports, there were suspicions that the car bombing was an act of revenge after President Jacques Chirac ordered to stop the payment of secret commissions. Investigating judges concluded that the kickbacks were used to fund the failed presidential bid of former Prime Minister Edouard Balladur when Nicholas Sarkozy was a budget minister and his election spokesperson.

Balladur lost the election to Chirac who cancelled the payments on the submarine contract after coming to power. Sarkozy associates in the scandal include businessman Nicolas Bazire, who was Balladur’s campaign manager in 1995; and Thierry Gaubert, a former aide to Sarkozy.

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Multiple corruption charges on Sarkozy

Sarkozy has also been facing charges of illegally financing his 2012 re-election campaign. The former president was accused of hiding the cost of his re-election campaign with the help of a public relations firm. The 64-year-old is facing multiple corruption charges since he left the office in 2012.

According to the preliminary charges, Sarkozy was accused of taking millions from the then Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Sarkozy was also accused of illegally obtaining information from a magistrate about another investigation. He was suspected of a quid pro quo with the magistrate promising him a job in exchange of information on the investigation involving him. The quid pro quo was for investigation in alleged illegal financing for the 2007 presidential campaign.

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(With agency inputs)