ANGOLA ARMS TRAFFICKERS CONVICTED
Oct 28th, 2009 by admin
The son of ex-French President Francois Mitterrand and an ex-government minister have been convicted for links to illegal arms trafficking to Angola during a civil war in the 1990s. The two men appeared for sentencing in a Paris court yesterday. Jean-Christophe Mitterrand, who was African affairs adviser to his father at the time, was fined 375,000 euros for receiving commissions linked to the arms deals and given a two-year suspended sentence. Ex-interior minister Charles Pasqua was jailed for one year. Israeli-Russian billionaire Arkady Gaydamak and French magnate Pierre Falcone were accused of masterminding the trafficking of Soviet-made weapons to Angola. They were each sentenced to six years in prison. Forty two people were on trial accused of receiving money from Falcone’s company in exchange for political and commercial favours.
