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Thursday, June 4, 1998

Benazir ready for trial in graft cases
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

KARACHI, June 3: Former Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto said on Wednesday that she was ready to face trial in Switzerland, Pakistan or anywhere else to clear her family's name of corruption charges.
She also denied her family had pocketed any kickbacks or government funds during her tenure as prime minister, and accused Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's government of harassment.

``People do not like to be indicted. But in this particular case, after 20 months of a horrendous media trial, it is better that we should have a clear chance to defend ourselves in a court of law,'' Bhutto told newsmen.

Her comments followed an announcement on Tuesday in Geneva by the head of Pakistan's Accountability Commission, Senator Saif-ur Rehman, that a Swiss magistrate had indicted three men described as Bhutto family agents.

Investigating Swiss magistrate Daniel Devaud indicted Hans Fischer, former manager of Societe Generale de Surveillance, Jens Schlegelmilch, Bhutto's agent, and Robert Massey, managingdirector of Cotecna, on money laundering charges, Rehman said.

Rehman told journalists the indictments, following six months of investigation, showed there was ``sufficient evidence showing that crimes of corruption were committed.''

The judge also ``confirmed his intention to proceed with the indictment of Bhutto's husband, Asif Ali Zardari,'' he said. The judge would move against Bhutto if he found she was not covered by immunity, he added.There was no confirmation of the indictment from the Swiss judicial authorities.

Bhutto described the Pakistani government's actions as ``absolutely appalling and shocking and a trampling of democratic traditions.''``The regime is criminally conspiring to manufacture evidence and is requesting a Swiss court, on the basis of concocted statements, to indict me,'' she said.

Bhutto's government was dismissed by then-President Farooq Ahmed Leghari in November 1996, on charges of misrule and corruption. Several days after her fall from power Bhutto's husband wasarrested on charges of involvement in the murder of Murtaza Bhutto, his brother-in-law. He has been held in prison ever since.

``I would rather see myself indicted and have a chance in a court of law than not have my day in court of law,'' she said, accusing Rehman of ``cooking up evidence'' against her family.

``The irony is that I and my family cannot defend ourselves until we are actually indicted,'' she said. ``Everything is a media trial. Everything is done on the basis of statements.''

The 44-year-old Bhutto said she was going to consult her lawyer about Rehman's actions, which she described as an attempt ``to con foreign courts that do not know what happened here.''

The Senator alleged that Bhutto, Zardari, and the three people charged on Tuesday set up a scheme involving 20 offshore accounts and up to 20 bank accounts in Switzerland to pocket kickbacks from a range of trade contracts.Rehman said he believed ``more than 250 million dollars'' had been frozen in some 15 to 20 Swiss bank accounts,part of the 1.5 billion dollars he said the Bhutto family had illegally taken from Pakistan.

``We do not have 1.5 billion dollars or 250 million dollars, nor have we have taken a single dollar belonging to Pakistan,'' said Bhutto. She compared Sharif to former Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos. ``The Swiss authorities are assisting the government of Pakistan, not recognising that in Pakistan we are the democrats and Nawaz Sharif is the Marcos. Nawaz Sharif is the dicatator.''