Bhutto appears before Swiss court in money-laundering probe

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto attended a Geneva court to answer questions on allegations she had used Swiss banks to launder millions of dollars in kickbacks, the investigating magistrate said today.

Bhutto appeared at Geneva’s Palais de Justice yesterday to answer questions relating to a charge from July 2004, said judge Vincent Fournier.

“I can confirm Mrs. Bhutto as here,” Fournier said. “It was a very long meeting.”

Fournier said “it is expected” that Bhutto will return to Geneva for another meeting, but was unable to give a date. He declined to comment further on the subject of yesterday’s session.

Bhutto and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, were convicted in absentia of money laundering in July 2003 under a Swiss law that empowers high-level investigators to impose penalties without a court hearing.

They received six-month suspended sentences and were ordered to pay €9.1m to the Pakistani government, but the conviction was automatically thrown out when the pair contested it. They were then charged by another Swiss magistrate in July 2004.

Bhutto, who lives in exile in the United Arab Emirates, has denied the charges, saying they are part of a Pakistani campaign against her.

Swiss authorities said in 1998 they found about 20 million Swiss francs (€12.8m) in Swiss accounts belonging to Bhutto and her family. The accounts were frozen at the request of Pakistan.

Bhutto has said she has no connection with the accounts.

Swiss and Pakistani investigators allege much of the money came from Societe Generale de Surveillance, or SGS, the world’s largest customs inspection company, in exchange for business with the Pakistani government when Bhutto was in power. SGS has consistently denied the claims.

Last year, the company and the Pakistani government reached an amicable settlement, with both sides agreeing to drop a series of lawsuits.

Bhutto was twice prime minister of Pakistan – she was the first woman premier in the Muslim world – but her governments collapsed in 1990 and 1996 over corruption allegations.

Bhutto’s husband has declined to go to Switzerland for questioning on grounds of poor health.