Jean-Charles Marchiani Pardoned by French President

French pardon of bribe-taker raises hackles
By VERENA VON DERSCHAU – 9 hours ago
PARIS (AP) — Among 27 prisoners granted French presidential pardons this holiday season is one with an unusual resume.
Jean-Charles Marchiani, a former secret agent, helped free French hostages in Lebanon in the 1980s and Bosnia in the 1990s, and served in the European parliament and as a governor in the south of France.
The influential conservative has also been convicted twice of taking big bribes for business contracts and is currently on trial in an international arms trafficking case. But French President Nicolas Sarkozy decided that Marchiani has paid his dues, and granted him a partial pardon this week that could see him soon free.

Sarkozy's enemies are crying foul.

"How can we talk about justice, when the same rules are not applied to everyone?" asked the leader of France's main opposition force, Socialist Martine Aubry. She noted that Sarkozy has rejected appeals for a mass early release for prisoners convicted of certain minor crimes.
Sarkozy was in Brazil all week, away from the fray.

The president's office made no direct comment about Marchiani's pardon, but issued a statement Tuesday announcing 27 partial or total pardons "motivated by acts of courage or bravery ... exhibited during or before their incarceration."

The CGT-Penitentiary prison workers' union called the gesture "scandalous." "What an act of bravery, to reside in the VIP section of the La Sante prison," the union said in a statement, referring to Marchiani, held in the La Sante prison in Paris.

Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said Marchiani's "personality and past actions were certainly taken into account" in deciding the pardon.

Four former French hostages in Lebanon appealed to Sarkozy to pardon Marchiani. So did Marchiani's former boss — Charles Pasqua, an icon of France's conservative establishment facing a tangle of corruption accusations himself.

Pasqua, a former interior minister, said "there is nothing extraordinary" about Sarkozy's decision. "Let's look at the services rendered, look at the risks undertaken, the courage that he exhibited, the results he obtained in freeing the hostages," Pasqua said on RTL radio.
Marchiani, close to former President Jacques Chirac, rose to national political prominence after helping negotiate the release of three French hostages held by the pro-Iranian Islamic Jihad movement in Lebanon in 1988. They were among several foreigners, including Americans, held in Lebanon at the time.

In exchange, France agreed to restore diplomatic relations with Iran strained over the Iran-Iraq war, and paid off the last segment of a billion-dollar dispute over a nuclear energy project with Iran.

Marchiani was later accused of laundering money meant for use as a ransom for the hostages, though the French government has denied paying a ransom.

In 2005, Marchiani was convicted in two corruption cases: one for taking kickbacks in the sale of gearboxes from a German company to the French Defense Ministry for use in Leclerc tanks, and another for profiting from a contract between a Dutch firm and the Paris airports authority over the sale of conveyor belts in the 1980s. He was a government official for at least part of the period when he received the bribes.

At the time, he said, "I don't think I deserve this kind of sentence. I think I have, for 42 years, served my country in dignity." He said he didn't regret anything he had done and would do it again.

The court disagreed. It said Marchiani "gave France the image of a country where corruption allows one to buy public decision-makers without difficulty."

Marchiani, 65, was notified Tuesday that his sentence was reduced by six months. Since he has already served 13 months of a three-year sentence, the partial pardon means he is now eligible to request conditional release.

Even if Marchiani leaves prison soon, he won't be free of legal woes.
He and his former boss Pasqua are among 42 people on trial in a tangled case of alleged arms trafficking to Angola. The trial began in October and is expected to last until March

Article @ The AP

Western Balkans a Source of Weapons for Jihad

Western Balkans is known as junction of different kind of trafficking. Biggest profits probably are coming from drugs arriving from Afghanistan to be distributed in EU area. Related to issue of terrorism the arms trafficking is now alarming not only because their selling in EU but because their planned use in Europe by radicals.

Last week an article in Serbianna (24/1/208) gave more light to topic.

• A group of radical Islamists that is ready to engage in terror activities is based in Bosnia, says Bosnia’s police chief Zlatko Miletic. “Wahabis have become the synonym for that sort of terrorism, but here is matter is about salafis as well,” says Miletic.
• He continues that 4 different groups operate in Bosnia, all of interest, because of their views of the world.
• Most concerning, says Miletic, is that these groups are buying suicide vests
• In 2008, Wahabis and other groups sympathetic to al-Qaeda are moving large quantities of explosives and weapons to Croatia.
• Islamic terrorists believe that Croatia will soon become a member of the EU which would allow an unimpeded weapons transfer from Croatia and into Europe.

The Rest @ ariruslia

Carlos Menem Charged With Weapons Trafficking

BUENOS AIRES, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Former Argentine President Carlos Menem was charged with weapons smuggling in a trial he attended via videoconference on Friday due to health problems. Menem, 78, was allowed to attend the trial on live video in his hometown in La Rioja province due to "anemia and stress."

• He is charged with having signed presidential decrees authorizing weapons sales to Venezuela and Panama, knowing those arms would end up in Ecuador and Croatia.
• Argentina was barred from supplying Ecuador with weapons after a brief war between Ecuador and Peru in 1995, while arms embargo to Croatia was internationally observed during the wars in the former Yugoslavia from 1991 to 1995.

Apart from Menem, former Defense Minister Oscar Camilion, Menem's former brother-in-law Emir Yoma and former chief of the Air Forces Brigadier Juan Paulik, are also being tried for the same crime.

Menem's lawyer Maximiliano Rusconi denied the charges, saying that the decrees Menem signed were of legal exports to Panama and Venezuela.

• Even if the weapons ended up in Ecuador and Croatia, that was because "the presidential decree was not followed," Rusconi said.
• "What was ordered by the former President Menem was totally contrary to what happened, and the customs and military are the ones that are supposed to give explanations to the event," said the lawyer.

Meanwhile, many former army officers who are accused of the same crime said that Menem should be responsible, because by themselves they couldn't have been able to do such a big maneuver which included seven maritime and three aerial transportation from1991 to 1995.

The weapons that arrived in Ecuador and Croatia included anti-tank missiles, hand grenades, land mines and rockets, prosecutors said.

The Rest @ China View

Zimbabwe Bound Small Arms FROM China Stranded In South Africa Port

South African dockers are refusing to unload a Chinese cargo ship carrying 77 tonnes of small arms destined for Zimbabwe.

The arms, including

• three million rounds of ammunition suitable for AK47s
• 1,500 rocket-propelled grenades,

were ordered by the Zimbabwean military at the time of the March 29 election – which Britain and other Western powers have accused Robert Mugabe of trying to rig.

The arms arrived at Durban, South Africa, on Wednesday aboard the Chinese-owned An Yue Jiang and must be taken by road to landlocked Zimbabwe, where the Government has been accused of arming rural militias before a possible run-off vote for the presidency.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has even accused Mr Mugabe's Zanu (PF) of preparing for a "war" against the people.

January Masilela, the South African Defence Secretary, said yesterday that the shipment had been approved this week by the National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC), which he chairs. "This is a normal transaction between two sovereign states and we don't have to interfere," he said.

But opposition parties slammed the decision to grant the transit permit and the country's main transport union said that its members would refuse to unload the cargo.

“We do not believe it will be in the interest of the Zimbabwean people in general if South Africa is seen to be a conduit of arms and ammunition into Zimbabwe at a time when the situation could be described as quite volatile,” said Randall Howard, a spokesman for the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU).

“As far as we are concerned the containers will not be offloaded”.

Rafeek Shah, defence spokesman for the Democratic Alliance, the main South African opposition party, added: "The world's astonishment at President Mbeki's political defence of Robert Mugabe will likely turn into outright anger as we are now not only denying the existence of a crisis in Zimbabwe, but also actively facilitating the arming of an increasingly despotic and desperate regime."

• AfriForum, a regional business lobby group, has said that it would organise protests along the shipment's route.
• The South African Institute of Race Relations said that if the shipment goes ahead, "South Africa's culpability in the Zimbabwe crisis would then be without question."
• Meanwhile, the South African Government's decision to allow transit of the shipment was the subject of an urgent legal challenge at the Durban High Court.
• Nicole Fritz, head of the Southern African Litigation Centre, told Times Online that under the 2002 National Convention on Arms Control, which the NCACC monitors, the permit should not have been granted. That law, she said, specifically prohibits the shipment of arms that will "contribute to internal repression".
• In addition, allowing the arms shipment would violate South Africa's international commitments under a range of agreements including the 1996 Wassenaar Arrangement.
  

"This is a very clear example of a situation in which the committee will be obliged to review a permit," she said, predicting that the High Court would order a stay on the shipment.

There have been persistent reports about Chinese arms sales to Zimbabwe, although the details are hard to pin down.

Zimbabwe announced in 2006 that it had bought six fighter jets from China, adding to a fleet of six it bought the previous year in a deal believed to be based on barter – with China obtaining precious mineral raw materials needed in its economic boom.

Zimbabwean officials said that the aircraft deal also included the purchase of 100 military vehicles from China to replace existing items that were no longer operational since Western sanctions halted imports of spare parts and maintenance equipment.

China’s sales of military hardware are believed to have amounted to more than US$200 million in recent years.

• There have also been reports that the Chinese have sold water cannons and mobile phone bugging equipment to the security forces in Harare – although it is not clear whether or not those sales were instigated by companies operating outside the control of central government.

Mr Howard, the SATAWU spokesman, said that the An Jue Yiang was carrying 36 containers, 30 of which were equipment for the mining industry in South Africa and Botswana.

“The balance is earmarked for Zimbabwe, four of which have arms and ammunition in them and the other two military aircraft ejector seats," he said.

More at the Times online

Bolivia Buys Russian Military Helecoptoers

7 October, 2008

Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) Arms Summgling Rings Broken

Through a large-scale international operation, police in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) have been making a concerted effort to suppress organised crime rings smuggling weapons via its territory to other rings operating in the EU countries.

• Operation West was conducted over the past several months in BiH and in some of its neighbours.
• Police from the Federation of BiH and Republika Srpska co-operated with counterparts in neighbouring countries and in some EU member states, including Slovenia, France, Austria and Croatia.
• The State Information and Protection Agency (SIPA) was also involved.
  

Since January, when investigations began, police have netted a large quantity of arms and other lethal materials, such as automatic rifles, rocket launchers, handguns, automatic weapons, hand grenades, various munitions, detonators and spare parts for weapons.

The seized material includes pentrite, an explosive more powerful than TNT. Factories in the former Yugoslavia produced it for that country's army.

Traffickers intended to resell those munitions in the Western European countries at a much higher price than available in the Balkans or for potential terrorist acts.

• During September, police arrested six people allegedly involved in the crime ring, four in BiH and two in Slovenia.
• They issued arrest warrants for two other suspects living in France. In this sting, police seized 62kg of pentrite, as well as a large number of automatic weapons, antitank rockets, detonators and ammunition.

At a press conference in Ljubljana, Slovenia, spokesmen explained that the ring was very well organised and gave each member specific tasks.

Its intention was to smuggle a large quantity of weapons and explosives into other EU states and reap huge profits.

During the months-long investigation, authorities identified Slovenia as a transit country for illegal arms being smuggled from the Western Balkan countries into the EU states.

Around mid-October, in another part of the sting, the SIPA raided many locations in central Bosnia and in the metropolitan areas of Sarajevo, Banja Luka and Zenica. It arrested six people, whom it handed over to the State Prosecutorial Office for further processing.

Police discovered during the investigation a number of weapon "shipments" had already gone undetected to the EU countries, where traffickers sold them.

At a press conference in Sarajevo, Dragan Lukac, deputy director of the SIPA, disputed the accuracy of some international reports alleging links between the arms-trafficking rackets and al-Qaeda.

The six suspects arrested in October came from different backgrounds, Lukac said, describing them as a "multi-ethnic group of criminals".

The Rest @ South Eastern European Times

CARICOM Works to Prevent Trafficing in 6 November Meeting

Georgetown, Nov 6 (Prensa Latina)

Ministers of National Security and Law Enforcement of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) analyze today a regional plan to stop crime and other evils like drug and arms trafficking in the area.

Debates focus in finding ways, together with the rest of society, to revert the situation of those prone to commit crime.

• Guyana Prime Minister Samuel Hinds said it is not only a question of dominating and do away with criminals, but of trying to separate them from that way of life and to reinsert them into society.
• Attention to schools will be a topic brought to discussion, as the Ministers pretend to apply plans to separate youths from violent and criminal conducts, as well as to include universities to the work of agencies linked to the social sector.

The meeting also includes:

• The exchange of intelligence information,
• measures against drug trafficking,
• Illegal arms sales
• Updating information on kidnappings and deportations.

Jamaica and Haití are two Caribbean nations with highest indicators of violence and crimes related to illegal arms sales and drug trafficking.
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The Rest @ Prensa Latina (english)