Appeal trial of Angolagate
The appeal of Angolagate after three days of getting started is to enter Monday in the heart of the matter, with consideration of the genesis and execution of the sale of arms to Angola in the 1990′s.
Obscure policy of France in Angola
Jean-Christophe Mitterrand, son of late president who at one time advisor for Africa, and Jean-Bernard Curial, a former “Mr. Africa” of the Socialist Party, should testify this week in particular. Both were sentenced to suspended prison terms and fines in the first instance, but did not appeal. They are not among the twenty defendants retried since Wednesday by the appeals court, including the businessmen Pierre Falcone (jailed) and Aracadi Gaydamak (in flight), the former Interior Minister Charles Pasqua or the ex-prefect Jean-Charles Marchiani.
A political mafia and elusive
MM. Mitterrand and Curial had nevertheless presented to the trial, called because of the appeal in civil court by a small association to fight against corruption. The president judge, Alain Guillou, then wish they had come to explain the origin of the contracts between Angola, then in civil war, and MM. Falcone and Gaydamak, for $ 790 million secured on future revenues from oil. Falcone and Gaydamak were sentenced to six years in prison trial for arms trafficking, a court that ruled the sale illegal.
The kickbacks, bribes, bribes will be considered in the following weeks
The kickbacks, bribes, bribes will be considered in the following weeks; as well as corporate activities of Falcone, the alleged laundering, the provision of a medal to Gaydamak, the release of French pilots in Bosnia … various components of a politico-financial imbroglio came to be grafted on arms sales. In early hearing Monday (10:00), the court must first decide on the various clauses of invalidity raised by the defense Friday. The trial is scheduled until March 2, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday
