GENEVA, 6 November 2003 — A Swiss court has ruled that it is not competent to judge an appeal by former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto against a $11.7 million money laundering conviction, legal documents indicated yesterday.
The ruling by the Police Tribunal in Geneva on Tuesday passes the case back to the regional prosecutor who must now decide how to proceed with the Pakistani government’s legal action against Benazir, her jailed husband Asif Ali Zardari and a Swiss lawyer, Jens Schlegelmilch.
A Geneva investigating magistrate ruled that the trio were guilty of laundering $11.7 million through Swiss accounts and handed down a six month suspended jail sentence.
That prompted an appeal by Benazir’s lawyers a month later, drawing out the five-year legal battle between the former prime minister and the current Pakistani government over illegal commissions paid by two Swiss companies.
The chief prosecutor for the Canton of Geneva, Daniel Zappelli, asked the court not to judge the appeal because the money laundering charges were too serious to be handled by the police tribunal.
