Le Figaro, November 17, 2010
Former Minister of Defence assured the judge that Van Ruymbeke rétrocommissions were paid until 1995 on the sidelines of a contract of sale to Pakistan of French submarines.
There would have been the case rétrocommissions in Karachi. It was the former Defense Minister Charles Millon, who has himself said.
Heard Monday by Judge Renaud Van Ruymbeke - charge of an investigation for perjury and obstruction of justice in the case of the attack in Karachi in 2002 - it was confirmed rétrocommissions paid up 'in 1995 on the sidelines of a contract of sale to Pakistan of French submarines.
A familiar with the matter, Charles Millon told the judge that "within fifteen days following" his appointment to the government in 1995, Jacques Chirac - then just elected President - he "asked to undertake a review of Contract weapons and to verify the extent possible if there were clues to the existence of rétrocommissions.
"For the Pakistani agreement, considering the intelligence reports and analysis that have been made by the responsible ministry, we had a firm belief that there was rétrocommissions," reported the former minister, citing The contract also Sawari II (sale of frigates to Saudi Arabia).
During that hearing, the Nouvel Observateur also reports in its Thursday edition, Charles Millon said he was "direct link" with the staff of Jacques Chirac, "especially with the secretary general, Dominique de Villepin (he was) regularly informed of the investigation. "
Debre opposes the secrecy of deliberations
This evidence underpins a track explored for over a year investigating the attack in Karachi - where fifteen people, including eleven French, had been killed - and gives more than ever the file looks like a state affair.
While the attack had initially been attributed to al-Qaeda, the investigation was later shifted to the hypothesis of Pakistani retaliation after the ruling, in 1995, payment of commissions on arms deal.
But according to testimony and reports on file, some of that money paid to middlemen Pakistanis, to facilitate the signing of contracts, would have received in return for French officials. These
rétrocommissions would specifically used to finance the presidential campaign Edouard Balladur in 1994. What the former prime minister - whose budget minister and spokesman of campaign was none other than Nicolas Sarkozy - denies.
Rest in 1995, the rapporteurs of the Constitutional Council had advocated a rejection of campaign Edouard Balladur. An opinion is not followed by the Council, then chaired by Roland Dumas, who had been validated.
Why reporters they had rendered this opinion? Were they aware rétrocommissions for?
To find out, Judge Van Ruymbeke has requested access to the content of exchanges between members of the Council. But Wednesday, a source familiar with the matter indicated that the President of the Constitutional Council, Jean-Louis, had refused.
In a letter dated November 9, Jean-Louis Debre argues "that attaches to the secret deliberations," set in his 5 years by article 63 of the Constitution.
Yet October 20, 2010, Michele Alliot-Marie, who was still Minister of Justice, had assured the National Assembly that justice could access the content of these internal debates.
A week ago, the president of the National Assembly, Bernard Accoyer, who was in the same way the judge refused to disclose the accounts records of hearings conducted by the members in this case.
Nourishing and the suspicions of the victims' families about possible political repercussions of the case Karachi.
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