French probe alleged Pakistani role in bombing

It has emerged that French magistrates investigating an attack in Pakistan that killed 11 French nationals seven years ago are looking into allegations it was linked to corrupt defence deals. At first Pakistani authorities blamed Islamic militants but two men had their convictions quashed on appeal in 2003.
 
Now the victim’s lawyer, Olivier Morice, says he believes leading figures in the French government “knew the attack wasn’t carried out by al-Qaeda but was linked to France’s non-payment of bribes and the victims were killed as an act of reprisal.”
 
A total of 14 people were killed in the attack on a coach carrying French naval engineers and technicians as they left a hotel in Karachi. Investigators believe unnamed Pakistani officials ordered the bombing after Jacques Chirac came to power and stopped the kickbacks.
 
A top secret memo allegedly shows some of the money had been spent in the campaign funds of then Prime Minister Edouard Balladur, whose campaign manager was current President Nicolas Sarkozy. He has dismissed the claims as ridiculous.
  
 

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tags: Attack, France, Pakistan