‘Karachi affair’ kickbacks trial

FORMER French prime minister Edouard Balladur was scheduled to go on trial on Tuesday (19) on charges that he used kickbacks from arms deals in the 1990s to fund a presidential bid, a case known as the “Karachi affair”.

Balladur, 91, will be tried by the Court of Justice of the Republic in Paris, a tribunal dedicated to hearing cases of ministerial misconduct.

Also in the dock will be his former defence minister Francois Leotard, 78, though his presence at the trial’s opening is uncertain because of illness.

Balladur will appear in court on Tuesday “to face his judges and answer their questions,” his lawyer Felix de Belloy said.

The two men were charged in 2017 with “complicity in the misuse of corporate assets” over the sale of submarines to Pakistan and frigates to Saudi Arabia between 1993 and 1995, when Balladur was prime minister in the final years of Francois Mitterrand’s presidency.

The arms deal kickbacks are estimated at 13 million francs, now worth some 2.8 million euros (£2.5m), after accounting for inflation.

The sum is believed to have included a cash injection of about 10 million francs to Balladur’s 1995 unsuccessful presidential campaign against Jacques Chirac.

Balladur, who also has to answer to a charge that he concealed the crimes, has denied any wrongdoing, saying the 10 million francs came from the sale of T-shirts and other items at campaign rallies.

The claims came to light during an investigation into a 2002 bombing in Karachi, Pakistan, which targeted a bus transporting French engineers.

Fifteen people were killed in the blast, which included 11 engineers working on the submarine contract.