Angola seeks to stop French 'Angolagate' trial
by Jean-Louis Pany Mon Oct 6, 9:26 AM ET
PARIS (AFP) - Angola was on Monday seeking to halt a French trial into a vast arms trafficking scandal involving the son of late president Francois Mitterrand and other members of the French elite.
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A lawyer representing the Luanda government said he would ask the court to throw out the case by invoking French confidentiality laws protecting military secrets of foreign countries.
Angola is opposed to "public discussion of information in a foreign court" that concerns its state interests and national security, said lawyer Francis Teitgen.
Dubbed Angolagate, the trial into the arms-to-Angola scandal was to open later Monday in a Paris court, shining a spotlight on alleged high-level French involvement in deliveries of weapons in violation of a UN arms embargo.
The trial centres on 790 million dollars worth of arms bought in eastern Europe from 1993 to 1998, at the height of the war pitting Luanda against Jonas Savimbi's UNITA rebels.
Judges accuse Angolan President Eduardo Dos Santos of turning to two businessmen for military supplies after France refused to sell him a shipment of tanks in violation of a UN arms embargo.
In all, 42 defendants go on trial but much attention will focus on French businessman Pierre Falcone and Israeli-Russian billionaire Arcady Gaydamak who shepherded the arms deals.
Both face 10 years in jail for influence-peddling and illegal arms sales. Gaydamak will be tried in absentia and is believed to be in hiding in Israel.
Jean-Christophe Mitterrand, a former adviser on African affairs at the Elysee presidential palace, is accused of "complicity in illegal trade and embezzlement" and taking bribes worth 2.6 million dollars.
Former interior minister Charles Pasqua and his right-hand man Jean-Charles Marchiani also risk 10 years for influence peddling on behalf of the Angolan authorities.
Pasqua on Monday again denied any wrongdoing and suggested the charges were politically-motivated.
"Everything has been done to implicate me in an affair that I had nothing to do with," Pasqua told Europe 1 radio.
The Angolagate case long poisoned relations between Paris and Luanda and the trial comes at an awkward time for France which is keen to strengthen ties with one of Africa's leading oil producers.
In its request to the Paris court, the Luanda government argued that Falcone acted as a lawful representative of the government and that it had a "fundamental right" to defend itself by seeking arms.
Angola was devastated in a 27-year war that finally ended in 2002 after claiming the lives of half a million people.
Prosecutors allege that tanks, shells, landmines, helicopters and even six warships were shipped to Angola over five years, allowing Dos Santos to build up his forces in the war against US-backed Savimbi.
Angola's payments were channelled through firms in Paris, Geneva and Tel Aviv to shell companies in Jersey, the Virgin Islands or Monaco, with suitcases of cash used to pay off middlemen, prosecutors say.
Other high-profile defendants include the French thriller writer Paul-Loup Sulitzer and Mitterrand's one-time advisor Jacques Attali, who risk five years for selling Angola access to their political and media contacts.
Although no Angolans are charged in the French case, prosecutors allege that 30 officials including Dos Santos received tens of millions of dollars in kickbacks.
Hearings were scheduled to continue until March.
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