Lift veil on world of arms sales

FRANCE should fully investigate all arms sales and bribes, a French senator has said after he was jailed for his part in selling weapons which fuelled Angola's civil war.

Senator Charles Pasqua, 82, who served as interior minister for four years and ran for president in 2002, was given a three year prison sentence, two years suspended, and ordered to pay €100,000 for receiving bribes for arms sales.

"The President of the Republic [Mitterrand] knew about the sales to Angola," Pasqua told France 2.

"The prime minister knew and most of the ministers as well. I think the time has come to bring these things into the open."

The arms originated in the former Soviet bloc and were sent to Africa in breach of French law through a French-based firm and its eastern European subsidiary.

Pasqua, who was not present at the court and is to appeal his sentence, said President Sarkozy should lift the veil on all defence sales abroad to see if there had been bribes involved.

Also convicted by the Paris court was the son of the late President Mitterrand, Jean-Christophe Mitterrand, who received a two-year suspended sentence and a €375,000 fine for receiving funds from the sales.

Russian-Israeli tycoon Arkady Gaydamak was convicted in absentia for organising the 1990s arms sales and sentenced to six years in jail.

"Rarely have we reached such levels in the organisation and the dissimulation of criminality generating considerable profits," said judge Jean-Baptiste Parlos as the verdicts were handed down.

French businessman Pierre Falcone, 55, was sentenced to six years in prison.

Jacques Attali, a former advisor to the late president, and magistrate Georges Fenech were acquitted.

Angola's civil war raged from 1975 to 2002, killing hundreds of thousands – spurred on by the US and Soviet arms and support during the Cold War.