Gaydamak gunrunning trial opens in Paris

Israeli-Russian billionaire, French businessman are two key suspects in case of organizing arms sale to Angola.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Arkady Gaydamak serious 248.88 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
Arkady Gaydamak serious 248.88
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
Israeli-Russian billionaire Arkadi Gaydamak, the son of a late French president and 40 other people charged with trafficking arms to war-riven Angola or taking kickbacks were set to face judges Monday in a long-awaited trial in Paris. The biggest-name defendants prepared to take the offensive, with some defense lawyers pushing to have all or part of the seven-year case dropped. Prosecutors allege that the two key suspects - Gaydamak, who was based in France at the time, and French businessman Pierre Falcone - organized the sale of Russian arms to Angola from 1993-2000, for a total of US$791 million, in breach of French government rules. The other suspects, including the son of former president Francois Mitterrand and other members of France's political elite, are accused of receiving money or gifts - undeclared to tax authorities - from a company run by Falcone in exchange for political or commercial favors. Investigators have said the corruption grew into a tangle of laundered money and parallel diplomacy that left a stain on France's relations with Africa. Lawyers for Falcone and Gaydamak have continued to argue there is no reason to pursue the case in a French court because the weapons never transited French territory. Prosecutors disagreed, citing the use of a French bank and French companies in the deals. A lawyer for Jean-Christophe Mitterrand insisted in an interview published in the daily Le Parisien on Monday that his client never received bribes - only payment for advising Falcone's company about Angola. Jean-Christophe Mitterrand had served as his father's Africa adviser in the years preceding the arms deals. Another well-known defendant, former Interior Minister Charles Pasqua, said on French radio Europe-1 on Monday that he had nothing to do with the events in question. He said the case was trumped up to thwart him from running for president in 2002. Pasqua is charged with "passive arms trafficking" and "receiving misused funds." The 81-year-old Pasqua, Gaydamak, Falcone and Mitterrand face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and thousands of euros in fines if convicted. Other suspects are accused primarily of "receiving misused funds;" the 468-page indictment includes depositions describing envelopes of cash changing hands and a shopping list of Kalashnikov rifles, land mines and tanks destined for Angola. Angola's 1979-2002 civil war served as a Cold War proxy conflict, between the Marxist army of President Jose Eduardo dos Santos and the forces of US-backed rebel leader Jonas Savimbi. Dos Santos, whose generals received the weapons in question in the Paris trial, has denounced the probe and French-Angolan relations suffered as a result of it. The trial is expected to last until March.