In 1994-1995, Sarkozy acted as the spokesperson for the presidential campaign of then budget minister for Prime Minister Edouard Balladur; an election which was won by former president Jaques Chirac. Members of Balladur’s campaign team are now accused of illegally funneling money from the sale of submarines to Pakistan into Balladur’s campaign.
The alleged corruption came under investigation after the murder of 11 French engineers in Karachi, Pakistan in 2002. In 2008, the investigation found that the murders may have been ordered by Pakistan secret services in retaliation for millions of dollars promised but never delivered by Balladur in 1994 when he had allegedly promised to pay Pakistani officials secret commissions for the sale of the French submarines.
After Chirac was elected, he ordered the payment of sales commissions to stop, triggering the ire—and revenge—of Pakistani “brokers.”
The investigations accelerated Wednesday with the formal accusations against a former assistant cabinet head to Sarkozy, and the jailing of Balladur’s general campaign manager, whom witnesses accuse of having personally received the money.
In a press conference the lawyer of Karachi attack victims, Olivier Morice, said he “is convinced that in the next few days or weeks, former Prime Minister Edouard Balladur will be held accountable,” Le Monde reported. Morice also said that his earlier accusations that Sarkozy was at the heart of the corruption, have been confirmed.
“Accusations against Nicolas Sarkozy can have severe and heavy consequences. We can today confirm the accusations we made in 2009. The investigation of the judge goes far beyond what we had been able to detect through our analysis of available files,” Morice said.
Socialist leaders who are preparing for 2012 presidential elections against Sarkozy, have taken the opportunity to criticize the system and Sarkozy. National Secretary Martine Aubry criticized the opacity of the funding system created by her conservative opponents and said this could be “one of the most severe [political scandals] of the Fifth Republic.”
Francois Hollande, another contester in the upcoming presidential campaign offered an ironic reminder, “a presidential candidate, I can’t remember his name, who talked of a uncorrupted Republic. We should try to find where he is and ask him what he thinks of the current situation,” citing Sarkozy’s words during his 2007 presidential campaign.
On Thursday, Sarkozy issued a press release distancing himself from the case.
“Mr. Nicolas Sarkozy never headed the campaign of Mr. Edouard Balladur nor did he have any responsibility for the funding of this campaign. He was a spokesperson. As for the “Karachi” case, the name of the French president is not mentioned in the judiciary files […] he is therefore entirely external to this affair.”
The press release ends by asking for some consideration for the pain of victim’s family and said that “everything else if but calumny and political manipulation.”
