Islamabad, Nov 05: A Swiss tribunal has upheld an appeal by former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto against a USD 12 million money laundering conviction and referred it to a higher judge, her spokesman said today. Bhutto, her husband Ali Asif Zardari, and their Swiss lawyer were convicted by Swiss Magistrate Daniel Devaud in July of obtaining the money in illegal commissions from two Swiss companies for a 1994 customs inspection contract.
Devaud found them guilty of laundering the funds in Swiss Bank accounts and using a portion of the cash to purchase a diamond necklace. He ordered them to return the funds to the Pakistani government.
Bhutto's lawyer Farooq Naik helped lodge the appeal in Geneva in August.
"The police tribunal has accepted her appeal and quashed the six-month suspended sentence ordered by Devaud," Senator Farhatullah Babar, of Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP), told reporters.
"The case has now been referred to the attorney general to decide. It is not the end of the case," Babar said, adding that no date had been fixed for the next decision.
The conviction by Devaud was a major embarrassment for the former first couple, who have rejected more than a dozen corruption allegations against them since 1996 as politically motivated.
Bureau Report