French 'establishment' on trial over Angola arms
42 people go on trial in France over arms-to-Angola scandal during country's civil war
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Monday, 06, Oct 2008 03:03
The trial of 42 people accused of facilitating arms sales to Angola during the country's 1990s civil war has begun in France.
The son of late president Francois Mitterand and a host of businessmen and politicians are among the defendants in what French media has dubbed 'Angolagate'.
Prosecutors allege that during the 1993 to 1998 Angolan civil war, €590 million (£456 million) of weapons arrived in the African country from eastern Europe.
On Monday the trial appeared in doubt when Angola called on the case to be thrown out under French confidentiality and overseas military secrets legislation.
Lawyer Francis Teitgen was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying that the Luanda authorities were against "public discussion of [national security] information in a foreign court".
The central defendants are businessmen Pierre Falcone and Arcadi Gaydamak, the Russian-born Israeli billionaire whose son Alexandre owns Portsmouth Football Club.
They could face ten years in jail if convicted of illegal arms sales, while Jean-Cristophe Mitterrand, whose father was president from 1981 to 1995, has been charged with complicity in illegal trade, embezzlement and bribes.
According to prosecutors, Angolan president Eduardo Dos Santos, who has ruled the country since 1979, turned to arms company boss Mr Falcone in 1992 with his country subject to a United Nations arms embargo.
The trial, which has also seen indictments against former interior minister Charles Pasqua and his deputy, is expected to last five months.