A judge in Switzerland has found former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and her husband, Asif Zardari, guilty of money laundering and has sentenced them to a six-month suspended jail term. "The Swiss Investigation Officer Mr Devaud has on July 31... passed an order pronouncing six months of suspended sentence and a fine of 50,000 dollars each," the couple's mouthpiece laywer and senator Farooq Naek said in a statement Tuesday.
| That's a right hefty Eurosentence, I guess... |
The case concerns allegations that the couple received millions of dollars in private commissions from a Swiss national in return for awarding SGS a contract to inspect imports and exports during Bhutto's second government from 1993 to 1996. Pakistani officials from the National Accountability Bureau have visited Switzerland over the last few years and asked investigators there to look into the allegations. An investigation found several numbered accounts in Switzerland in which more than $11m had been deposited.
| With that much jack in stash, I guess they can afford a $50,000 fine. |
Naek slammed the Swiss investigator's finding as "malafide and politicially motivated."
| "Yeah. Them Swissers is always meddlin' in Pak politix!" |
"The investigation officer's order is illogical, unreasonable, inconsistent with law... and is politically motivated," Naek said.
| Yep. That must be it. It can't possibly be that they're a coupla crooks. |
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