PARIS, June 11: A key suspect in the French illegal political funding scandal known as the ‘Karachi Affair’ has been located and questioned by investigators in Switzerland, legal sources said on Monday.

Abdulrahman el-Assir, a Lebanese-born businessman subject to a French arrest warrant issued last November, was questioned on May 30 by Swiss investigators but was not placed in detention, the sources said.

Assir is a former associate of Franco-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine, who has already been charged with graft in the investigation.

French investigators raided Assir’s Paris apartment several months ago but found it empty.

The suspect may soon be questioned in Switzerland by a French judge, the sources said.

The `Karachi Affair’, as it is dubbed in the French media, is a complex probe into alleged kickbacks on arms deals.

Investigators are looking into irregularities in the financing of Edouard Balladur’s 1995 presidential campaign. Former president Nicolas Sarkozy was then prime minister Balladur’s campaign spokesman and budget minister.

Judges suspect Mr Balladur’s campaign of receiving illicit `retro-commissions’ from the sale of French submarines to Pakistan. Two political aides to Mr Sarkozy and a former minister are under formal investigation over the affair.

Judges are also probing claims that a 2002 bombing in Karachi that killed 11 French naval engineers was carried out by Pakistani agents in revenge for the cancellation of bribes secretly promised to officials.

The payment of arms sales commissions was legal in France until 2000, but the payment of kickbacks back to France was and is illegal.

The probe focuses on the 1994 sale of submarines to Pakistan and frigates to Saudi Arabia, in which Assir and Takieddine are believed to have acted as middlemen.

Mr Sarkozy loses his presidential immunity a month after leaving office on May 15 and could be called in for questioning, either as a witness or potentially as a suspect, in the case.

He has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.—AFP

Opinion

Editorial

Smog hazard
Updated 05 Nov, 2024

Smog hazard

The catastrophe unfolding in Lahore is a product of authorities’ repeated failure to recognise environmental impact of rapid urbanisation.
Monetary policy
05 Nov, 2024

Monetary policy

IN an aggressive move, the State Bank on Monday reduced its key policy rate by a hefty 250bps to 15pc. This is the...
Cultural power
05 Nov, 2024

Cultural power

AS vital modes of communication, art and culture have the power to overcome social and international barriers....
Disregarding CCI
Updated 04 Nov, 2024

Disregarding CCI

The failure to regularly convene CCI meetings means that the process of democratic decision-making is falling apart.
Defeating TB
04 Nov, 2024

Defeating TB

CONSIDERING the fact that Pakistan has the fifth highest burden of tuberculosis in the world as per the World Health...
Ceasefire charade
Updated 04 Nov, 2024

Ceasefire charade

The US talks of peace, while simultaneously arming and funding their Israeli allies, are doomed to fail, and are little more than a charade.