Appeals trial opens in Angolagate 'arms-for-oil' scandal

A court in Paris has heard appeals for former interior minister Charles Pasqua (photo) and several other people convicted for their role in an arms trafficking scandal involving prominent politicians, businessmen and members of the Parisian elite.

By News Wires (text)

AFP - A French court heard appeals Wednesday for former interior minister Charles Pasqua and others convicted in a far-reaching corruption scandal over arms sales to Angola in the 1990s.

The "Angolagate" affair saw Pasqua, 83, receive a one-year jail term with two years suspended, in a scandal in which he implicated several top political figures including Jacques Chirac, French president at the time of the affair.

Pasqua is among about 20 defendants at a Paris court appealing their convictions handed down in 2009.

He was accused of receiving illegal payments in return for lobbying for a $790 million (590 million euro) sale of arms to Angola in the 1990s, during its 1975-2002 civil war.

Pasqua sat solemn-faced before the judge and did not address the court on Wednesday morning. His lawyer Leon Lef-Forster told the court he would show that the accusations against Pasqua were "totally unfounded."

French elite on trial in 'Angolagate'

ANGOLAGATE

High profile figures among the suspects
FOCUS

The fallout from 'Angolagate'
FRANCE

Jail terms for 'Angolagate' power players

Among the other key defendants in the affair, the businessman Pierre Falcone, 56, was jailed for six years for the illegal arms sales and paying bribes. He is also appealing at the current trial.

"I contest all the deeds I am accused of," Falcone told the court on Wednesday. "There was no arms trafficking" nor "influence peddling," he added.

"If there is one victim, it is the defendant who stands before you," he told the court, saying he had suffered "11 years of torture and humiliation" over the case.

Another defendant, the Franco-Israeli businessman Arcadi Gaydamak, 58, was also handed a six-year jail term in 2009 but is on the run and did not attend Wednesday's hearing.

Jean-Christophe Mitterrand, the son of France's former president Francois Mitterrand, was also among the defendants.

He received a suspended jail term in the 2009 trial which he has not appealed, but said he was obliged to attend in order to hear a separate appeal by a civil plaintiff in his case.

Mitterrand told reporters outside the court that "these affairs date back 20 years" and denounced the ongoing judicial procedures as "relentless".

The first three days of hearings were expected to deal mostly with procedural issues and the appeals trial is set to last until March 2.