theSun | THURSDAY OCTOBER 29 2009
news without borders
France jails
arms smugglers
PARIS: A French court slapped
jail terms on Tuesday on the
main players in a network that
smuggled arms to war-torn An-
gola and included an ex-minister
and the son of the late president
Francois Mitterrand.
Russian-Israeli tycoon Arkady
Gaydamak was convicted in ab-
sentia for organising the 1990s
arms sales and sentenced to six
years in jail at the trial that ex-
posed a ring of corruption at the
highest levels of Paris politics.
The huge Soviet-made arse-
nal that fuelled Angola’s grim
civil war included 420 tanks,
150,000 shells, 170,000 anti-
personnel mines, 12 helicopters,
and six warships and was worth
US$790 million (RM2.7 billion).
Only six of the 42 defend-
ants were acquitted in the trial
dubbed “Angolagate” that began
last October after years of com-
plex investigations.
“Rarely have we reached
such levels in the organisation
and the dissimulation of crimi-
nality generating considerable
profits,” said judge Jean-Baptiste
Parlos as the verdicts were
handed down.
He described Gaydamak, 57,
as someone who “behind the
mask of worthiness... scoffs at
borders, laws and justice”.
French businessman Pierre
Falcone, 55, was also sentenced
to six years jail for his role in
the illegal trade and was im-
briefs
Man orders honour
killing of son-in-law
NEW DELHI: In another ter-
rifying case of honour killing in
northern India, the father of a
young bride hired thugs to kill his
son-in-law and rape his daughter
as a punishment for marrying
within the same caste. The crime
happened on Deepavali day, on
Oct 17, when the father, a retired
army man, hatched the plan to
teach a lesson to his 21-year-old
daughter who married her child-
hood friend.
The Times of India yesterday
reported that the victim’s husband
was killed by her own relative and
friends and she was repeatedly
raped by them from Oct 17 to 22,
until she escaped and reported to
the police. Haryana police have ar-
rested the girl’s 50-year-old father
and his nephew for the alleged
honour killing in Narela, outside
Delhi. – Bernama
Palin receives
RM4m for book
ANCHORAGE: Former vice-
presidential candidate Sarah
Palin received a US$1.25 mil-
lion (RM4.3 million) advance
payment for her upcoming
memoir, official records
showed on Tuesday. Financial
records filed by Republican
politician Palin with Alaska’s
Public Offices Commission
listed the payment from
publisher HarperCollins as a
9
mediately taken into custody by
police at the courtroom, despite
his plans to appeal.
Ex-interior minister Charles
Pasqua, 82, was ordered jailed
for a year, plus two more years
suspended, and fined €100,000
(RM510,000). Now a French
senator, he was not in court but
his lawyers said he intends to
appeal.
In a television interview
with France 2, Pasqua said that
former president Mitterrand
knew that weapons were being
sold to the Angolans.
“The president was aware
of the sale of arms to Angola.
The prime minister was aware,
most ministers too... I think the
time has come to put the record
straight,” he said.
Jean-Christophe Mitterrand,
62, who was an advisor on Africa
to his president father, was given
a two-year suspended sentence
and a €375,000 (RM1.9 billion)
fine for receiving embezzled
funds from the illegal arms sales
to Angola. He accepted millions
of euros in “consultant fees”
on the sale of the weapons to
President Eduardo Dos Santos’s
regime for use in the 1979-2002
bush war against Unita rebels.
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. – AFP
“retainer for a book.”
The cash was paid before
she formally stepped down as
Alaska Governor in July, accord-
ing to the records, which were
reproduced by the Anchorage
Daily News on its website.
Palin’s book Going Rogue: An
American Life shot to the top of
Amazon’s bestseller list earlier
this month, ahead of its publi-
cation on Nov 17. – AFP
Gang rape at
school dance
SAN FRANCISCO: Police have
arrested a 15-year-old boy on
charges that he participated in
a shocking gang rape outside a
school dance hall in California,
amid reports that over a dozen
students witnessed the brutal as-
sault but did nothing to stop it.
The incident occurred on
Saturday night at Richmond
High School, just outside San
Francisco. The victim was found
semi-conscious under a bench
and was flown to hospital in criti-
cal condition. – dpa
Sisters kept
chained for 22 years
PRISTINA: A 70-year-old Albani-
an man kept his two daughters
chained for 22 years, saying
they were mentally ill and ag-
gressive, local media reported
on Tuesday.
“They were both ill, and I
kept them in chains to keep
them from running away,”
the man told local media. “I
have fed them and washed
them, but I had no time to go
and look for them if they ran
away,” he said. – dpa