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The families of victims who died in the May 8, 2002 attack in Karachi and who filed a complaint against the DCN, are waiting for the administrative court hearing to open on December 11, 2003 in Saint-Lô (image for illustration) . AFP

On the morning of 1 October, the Court of Justice of the Republic decided to try former Prime Minister Édouard Balladur and his former defense minister, François Léotard, in the financial part of the Karachi affair. The two men are fired for "complicity in misuse of social property" in this case of possible hidden funding of the 1995 presidential campaign, "via" retro-commissions.

Within a few months, Édouard Balladur (90) and François Léotard (77) will appear before the Court of Justice of the Republic. François Léotard is reproached for having set up an opaque circuit at the heart of arms contracts with Pakistan, for the sale of three submarines, and with Saudi Arabia for the sale of frigates. The Minister of Defense of the Balladur government has given instructions for these contracts to be in deficit, mainly because of doubtful commissions .

Eleven French dead

Edouard Balladur will be judged for the concealment of these abuses: nearly two million euros likely to come from these retro-commissions would have fed his campaign accounts. Suspicions of hidden funding had emerged during the initial investigation into the Karachi attack in 2002. Attack in which eleven French shipyard employees were killed.

Reprisals

This survey is still open. The magistrates instructors have never been able to prove it but they consider probable that it is about reprisals with a decision of stop of the payment of commissions in Pakistan, decision taken by Jacques Chirac scoundrel of Edouard Balladur in the presidential of 1995 .

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