Israeli tycoon appeals against corruption conviction in Swiss court

Israeli diamond magnate Beny Steinmetz, left, arrives at court in Geneva with his lawyer, Daniel Kinzer (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone/AP)

Lawyers for Israeli diamond magnate Beny Steinmetz have urged a Swiss appeals court to throw out testimony from a former first lady of Guinea that contributed to his conviction for corruption.

The case involves an alleged plot, dating to the mid-2000s, in which Steinmetz’s BSGR Group squeezed out a rival for mining rights for vast iron ore deposits in Guinea’s south-eastern Simandou region.