The decision of the Swiss judge who found Bhutto and Zardari guilty of corruption and receiving kickbacks in SGS Cotecna case can be seen here.
Late Benazir Bhutto, the two-time prime minister of Pakistan, her widower and now President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari, were given six months suspended sentence, but appealed against it and when this appeal was about to be finalised, former military dictator Pervez Musharraf bailed the couple out through NRO and withdrew these Swiss cases, so the couple was saved from punishment, but this does not mean that they did not commit any corruption.
Some news items are also attached for your reference. Our worthy news anchors should have a look into this material and question PPP stalwarts who shamelessly lie during talk shows to defend their master Mr 200 percent.
A judge in Switzerland has found former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and her husband, Asif Zardari, guilty of money laundering.
Investigation Judge Daniel Devaud in Geneva sentenced them to a six-month suspended jail term, fined them $50,000 each and ordered they pay more than $2m to the Pakistani Government.
He said they had illegally deposited millions of dollars in accounts in Switzerland, and ordered the money be returned to Pakistan.
Ms Bhutto and Mr Zardari deny misappropriating the money, and are considering an appeal.
The BBC's Zaffar Abbas in Islamabad says the ruling will come as a blow to the former prime minister, who has always said that corruption cases against her in Pakistan were politically motivated.
The latest ruling is a more serious matter and may make it more difficult for her to defend her position, our correspondent says.
Appeal
The case relates to a 1998 indictment in which Benazir Bhutto was accused of having access to money obtained through kickbacks and commissions from two Swiss companies with contracts with the then Pakistani Government.
BENAZIR BHUTTO
An investigation found several numbered accounts in Switzerland in which more than $11m had been deposited.
Benazir Bhutto strongly denies having had access to the accounts and is considering whether to appeal against the ruling.
The couple's lawyer, Farooq Naek, described the order as "illogical, unreasonable, inconsistent with law, based on malafide [bad faith] and ... politically motivated."
He complained that the announcement had been made without notices having been served on either Ms Bhutto or Mr Zardari.
Ms Bhutto lives in self-imposed exile in London and the Middle East.
Asked whether the Swiss ruling could affect Ms Bhutto's permission to remain in the UK, a Home Office spokesman told BBC News Online that they do not comment on individual cases.
But they said: "A person holding an entry clearance can be refused entry to the United Kingdom if there has been a change of circumstances since the visa was issued."
Her husband is currently serving a jail term in Pakistan for corruption.
In a separate development, Mr Zardari was formally indicted on Tuesday for the murder of a chairman of state-owned Pakistan Steel, Sajjad Hussain, who was shot in 1998.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/3125277.stm
Published: 2003/08/05 11:37:01 GMT
© BBC MMX
Diamond necklace exposed Bhutto money-laundering trail
Details emerged yesterday of how a £117,000 diamond necklace led to the former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto and her husband being convicted of money laundering by a Swiss court last week.
The pair were given suspended jail sentences of six months each and ordered to repay about £8m to the Pakistani government.
Although Ms Bhutto continues to deny the charges and says she intends to appeal, the Swiss investigating magistrate found that during her second term as prime minister she enriched herself or her husband with kickbacks from a government contract with two Swiss companies.
"There is no doubt that the behaviour of Benazir Bhutto and her husband is criminally reprehensible in Pakistan," the magistrate, Daniel Devaud wrote in his sentencing order after the five-year investigation.
The order, a copy of which has been obtained by the Guardian, says that in 1995 the two companies, SGS and Cotecna, took up a contract for customs inspection of goods being imported into Pakistan.
The judge cited letters showing that 6% of the amount paid by the Pakistani government under the inspection contract would be paid as commission to companies registered in the British Virgin Islands.
One of these, Bomer Finances Inc, received $8.2m and another, Nassam Overseas Inc, received $3.8m, the judge found.
The beneficial owner of Bomer Finance is Ms Bhutto's husband, Asif Ali Zardari, but in reality she shares the assets with him and has the power of disposition, the judge said.
The beneficial owner of Nassam Overseas is Nasir Hussain, who at the time was Ms Bhutto's brother-in-law, he added.
Evidence of Ms Bhutto's role in Bomer Finance emerged from a visit to London during which she bought a diamond necklace at a Knightsbridge jeweller's.
The £117,000 bill was paid partly in cash and partly with money from Bomer Finance's account.
It was the only withdrawal made from the company's account before its assets were frozen at the request of the Pakistani authorities.
The necklace was later found in a Swiss bank vault, and was also seized.
Under the judge's ruling it must now be handed over to the Pakistani state.
Zardari is currently in jail in Pakistan, where he is serving a seven-year sentence for corruption.
He has also been implicated in 14 other pending criminal cases.
Ms Bhutto lives in exile, mainly in Britain and Dubai.
Jeremy Carver, a lawyer who represented the Pakistani government five years ago in relation to Ms Bhutto, said yesterday that there were "at least half a dozen international cases at various stages in various pipelines, either in Pakistan, Switzerland or the United States".
Ms Bhutto's Rockwood estate at Brooke in Surrey, valued at £3.5m, is currently being sold by the Pakistani government.
She is believed to own four other properties in London.
| By Richard Lawson BBC News, London |
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto is preparing for general elections shortly after returning to the country after years of self-imposed exile.
She came back after President Pervez Musharraf granted her a controversial amnesty from the charges in Pakistan.
The Supreme Court may yet rule that amnesty illegal. But even if it clears it, Ms Bhutto, who has been in talks about a power-sharing deal with President Musharraf, could still face several cases outside of Pakistan.
One of the most advanced is in Switzerland, where in 2003 Geneva magistrate Daniel Devaud convicted Ms Bhutto of money-laundering.
In his judgment, he found she and her close associates received around $15m in kickbacks from Pakistani government contracts with SGS and Cotecna, two Swiss companies.
Mr Devaud sentenced Ms Bhutto and her husband Asif Zardari to 180 days in prison, ordering them to return $11.9m to the government of Pakistan.
"I certainly don't have any doubts about the judgments I handed down [which] came after an investigation lasting several years, involving thousands of documents," he has told the BBC.
Ms Bhutto contested the decision, which was made in her absence, and the case is being reheard, with the former prime minister now facing the more serious charge of aggravated money-laundering.
Not automatic
Asked about the case, her officials told the BBC: "These allegations are part and parcel of a campaign of a character assassination. Ms Bhutto has not done anything illegal. She and her husband, Senator Asif Zardari, both have defended themselves in every court in every country."
Many in Pakistan assume the Swiss case will now collapse because of the deal struck between Ms Bhutto and President Musharraf.
Yet under Swiss law, even if the government of Pakistan stops co-operating, that would not automatically end legal proceedings in Switzerland.
Vincent Fournier, the Swiss judge in charge of the current case, told the BBC he planned to hand the case over to Geneva's attorney-general this week.
A second international case involving Ms Bhutto is under way in England.
In this case, the government of Pakistan alleged that Ms Bhutto and her husband bought Rockwood, a $3.4m country estate in Surrey, using money from kickbacks.
Ms Bhutto and Mr Zardari denied owning the estate for eight years. But in 2004, Mr Zardari suddenly admitted that it was his.
Then, in 2006, an English judge, Lord Justice Collins, came to an interesting, though by no means final, conclusion about the estate.
Whilst stressing he was not making any "findings of fact", Justice Collins said there was a "reasonable prospect" of the government of Pakistan establishing, in possible future court proceedings, that Ms Bhutto and/or her husband bought and refurbished Rockwood with "the fruits of corruption".
Asked by the BBC about Rockwood, Ms Bhutto's officials denied any allegations of corruption, but gave no detailed response, although her husband's lawyers told Justice Collins that Pakistan's case was speculative.
The London case is a civil one. That means it could collapse should President Musharraf's government decide not to pursue it.
Iraq questions
Ms Bhutto also faces allegations concerning the United Nations oil-for-food scandal.
In 2005, the Independent Inquiry Commission led by former US Federal Reserve head Paul Volcker found that more than 2,000 companies breached UN sanctions by making illegal payments to Saddam Hussein's government in Iraq before 2003.
Among them was a company called Petroline FZC, based in the United Arab Emirates. Mr Volcker's inquiry found it traded $144m of Iraqi oil, and made $2m of illegal payments to Saddam Hussein's regime.
Documents from Pakistan's National Accountability Bureau appear to show that Ms Bhutto was Petroline FZC's chairwoman.
If these documents are genuine, and the oil-for-food allegations are proven, this would be especially damaging for the former prime minister.
The Spanish authorities are investigating financial transactions thought to be linked to Petroline FZC. In addition, President Musharraf's amnesty dropping corruption charges against public officials only covers the period 1986-1999.
The Petroline FZC transactions came after that, which means that in theory a charge is possible.
Ms Bhutto has always denied all corruption allegations, and her supporters say the allegations against her are politically motivated.
But her legal difficulties may not be over yet.
You can hear more about this report on Benazir Bhutto: The investigation on the BBC World Service.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/7064052.stm
Published: 2007/10/29 00:05:10 GMT
© BBC MMVII
Swiss judge wraps up Bhutto money-laundering probe
GENEVA (Reuters) - A Swiss investigative judge said on Thursday that he had completed a long-running probe into alleged money laundering by former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and her husband.
Judge Vincent Fournier, who spoke as Bhutto returned to her homeland after eight years in self-exile, said he would hand over his confidential findings next week to Geneva chief prosecutor Daniel Zappelli for action.
Zappelli has three options -- to bring the case to trial, suspend it, or dismiss it.
Fournier conceded that money-laundering allegations would be harder to prove under Swiss law after President Pervez Musharraf granted an amnesty to protect Bhutto from corruption charges at home.
"It is not impossible, but much more difficult," he said. "The fact that Pakistan has withdrawn its own prosecution does not help the Swiss demonstration of money-laundering."
At least $13 million remains frozen in bank accounts in the Swiss city in connection with the criminal case, which relates to alleged kickbacks from Swiss cargo inspection companies in the 1990s, officials said.
"I regard my investigation as completed and the case is ready for the prosecutor," Fournier told Reuters.
To obtain a conviction under Swiss federal law, a prosecutor must prove that graft or other crimes have been committed abroad and the proceeds were laundered in Switzerland. A conviction for aggravated money-laundering can mean up to five years in prison.
Bhutto and her husband Asif Ali Zardari were convicted in Geneva in 2003 of having laundered funds worth some $13 million through offshore companies and ordered to return the frozen funds to the Pakistani government, which currently remains a civil party in the case.
But this verdict was thrown out automatically upon appeal, sparking a new probe. Bhutto denied the money-laundering charges in testimony two years ago before Fournier.
Alec Reymond, Bhutto's lawyer in Geneva, said he expected Zappelli to drop the case following Musharraf's amnesty, which also applies to Zardari.
"The abandonment of the prosecution in Pakistan should lead to the affair being closed in Geneva," Reymond told Reuters.
Bhutto's return could eventually lead to power sharing with Musharraf, the army chief who took power in a 1999 coup. Pakistan's Supreme Court has still to rule on the legality of the amnesty and of Musharraf's recent re-election.
Source: https://mail.google.com/mail/?source=navclient-ff&shva=1#search/Devaud/115ecb209fd99422
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248. Protection to President, Governor, Minister, etc.
(1) The President, a Governor, the Prime Minister, a Federal Minister, a Minister of State, the Chief Minister and a Provincial Minister shall not he answerable to any court for the exercise of powers and performance of functions of their respective offices or for any act done or purported to be done in the exercise of those powers and performance of those functions:
Provided that nothing in this clause shall be construed as restricting the right of any person to bring appropriate proceedings against the Federation or a Province.
(2) No criminal proceedings whatsoever shall be instituted or continued against the President or a Governor in any court during his term of office.
(3) No process for the arrest or imprisonment of the President or a Governor shall issue from any court during his term of office.
(4) No civil proceedings in which relief is claimed against the President or a Governor shall be instituted during his term of office in respect of anything done by or not done by him in his personal capacity whether before or after he enters upon his office unless, at least sixty days before the proceedings are instituted, notice in writing has been delivered to him, or sent to him in the manner prescribed by law, stating the nature of the proceedings, the cause of action, the name, description and place of residence of the party by whom the proceedings are to be instituted and the relief which the party claims.