ISLAMABAD, 6 August 2003 — Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, her jailed husband Asif Zardari and a Swiss lawyer have been found guilty of money laundering by a Swiss judge in a case involving two Swiss firms nine years ago.
Benazir, Zardari and Jens Schlegelmilch were guilty of arranging an illegal six percent commission worth $12 million for awarding a customs inspection contract to Swiss firms Societe Generale de Surveillance (SGS) and Cotecna.
The finding is the first foreign conviction of Pakistan’s former first couple, who have been fending off a raft of corruption charges at home since Benazir’s second dismissal as prime minister in 1996. The pair always dismissed the charges as politically motivated.
Swiss investigating magistrate Daniel Devaud said in his 15-page judgment on July 30 that his inquiry had established that Benazir and Zardari were paid some $11,997,423 by SGS and Cotecna in 1994 and laundered the funds in two Swiss bank accounts, Barclays Geneva and UBS Geneva.
He awarded Benazir and Zardari a suspended six-month prison sentence and ordered them to repay the Pakistani government the full $11,997,423.
The Swiss judge also ordered them to forfeit to Islamabad a diamond necklace purchased by Benazir with funds from the Swiss accounts for 117,000 British pounds in August 1997.
Benazir has dismissed the Swiss finding as politically motivated, her Pakistani lawyer Farooq Naek said.
The Pakistani government welcomed the Swiss finding as proof of Benazir’s “loot and plunder” of Pakistani coffers.
