Islamabad Aug 05: A Swiss court has handed down Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and her husband Asif Zardari a six months suspended sentence and fined them 50,000 dollars each in a corruption case, their lawyer said today. "The Swiss investigation officer Devaud has on July 31 passed an order pronouncing 6 months of suspended sentence and a fine of 50, 000 dollars each to Benazir Bhutto and Senator Asif Ali Zardari in the pre-shipment inspection case", their lawyer Senator Farooq Naek said in a statement here. The court also seized Bhutto dollars bank accounts and a necklace. The case concerns allegations that Bhutto and Zardari received millions of dollars in private commissions from a Swiss National in return for awarding SGS, a Swiss firm, a contract to inspect imports and exports during Bhutto's second government from 1993 to 1996. Naek said Bhutto and Zardari are now consulting legal advisors to decide whether to file a representation against investigation officer's order terming it "illogical, unreasonable, inconsistent with law, based on malfide and politically motivated".
He said the order, which was the outcome of a five year inquiry, was communicated to the Swiss Government yesterday.
The lawyer alleged that "during all these years that Devaud was supposedly investigating the case and until his last day in office (July 31) no notices were served either on Bhutto or Zardari even though the latter was in jail and within reach.