Paris: French opposition lawmakers on Thursday
called on President Nicolas Sarkozy to give all details of any
links to suspected kickbacks on arms deals allegedly used to
fund political campaigns.
Three Socialist deputies spoke out after extracts from a
Luxembourg police report published yesterday alleged that a
company set up with Sarkozy`s approval channelled money from
arms deal commissions to fund political activities in France.
French investigators have since 2008 been probing
allegations that the cancelling of commissions for one of the
arms deals prompted an attack that killed 11 French engineers
in Pakistan in 2002.
News website Mediapart quoted a Luxembourg police report
as saying that Sarkozy oversaw the establishment in Luxembourg
of two companies, Heine and Eurolux, when he was budget
minister under Prime Minister Edouard Balladur.
Balladur and Sarkozy have repeatedly dismissed
allegations of illegal party funding.
But Mediapart quoted the Luxembourg police as saying:
"The agreements on the creation of the two companies appear to
have come directly from Prime Minister Balladur and Finance
(Budget) Minister Nicolas Sarkozy."
PTI
