Bhutto faces retrial for corruption involving Swiss firms
Pakistan's supreme court has quashed the convictions and jail terms of the former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, and her husband, Asif Zardari, and ordered that they be tried again on charges of accepting bribes from Swiss companies.
At their original trial two years ago, the couple were found guilty of accepting bribes from the Geneva-based Société générale de surveillance (SGS) and its subsidiary, Cotecna, in return for awarding them multi-million dollar public contracts.
Bhutto and Zardari each received five-year prison sentences, in addition to a fine of $8.6 million.
The Supreme Court did not give reasons for its decision, which was announced on Friday. But Bhutto has always denied the charges against her, saying they were trumped up by her political rival, Nawaz Sharif, who was prime minister at the time of her conviction.
Switzerland, which provided legal assistance to Pakistan prior to the convictions, has been conducting its own investigation into the corruption allegations. A spokesman for the justice ministry said the probe was continuing and a number of bank accounts remained frozen.
The Geneva magistrate, Daniel Devaud, said the sums the couple allegedly received in kickbacks amounted to $10 million (SFr17 million), or around six per cent of the value of the contracts awarded to the Swiss companies.
Bhutto’s lawyer, who had hoped for her release, nevertheless expressed satisfaction with the court’s ruling.
The former prime minister has been living in self-imposed exile abroad since fleeing Pakistan before the sentence against her was announced. Her husband has been in prison since 1996.
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