Human rights NGO Suaram, which in 2009 filed a suit against a French defence company over irregularities in the sale of two Scorpene-class submarines to Malaysia, today welcomed the French investigators’ decision to indict two former top executives involved in the deal.
Suaram executive director Sevan Doraisamy said that after such a long time without any development in the case, the NGO was cheered by the latest news. We have waited a long time. This is definitely what we have been hoping for, if the case proceeds. Malaysians have the right to know what happened.
French news agency AFP, in a report today quoting sources, said French investigators charged two company executives involved in the sale of the Scorpene submarines costing US$1.1 billion to Malaysia in 2002.
The two are Philippe Japiot, former chairman of the French naval dockyards unit DCNI, and Jean-Paul Perrier, former chief executive officer of the French defence and electronics giant Thales. The two were interviewed in May in connection with corruption and commission allegations.
Japiot has additionally been indicted for “abuse of social assets” and Perrier for “complicity in the abuse of social assets,” one of the sources said. The investigation was launched in 2010 in response to a complaint by Suaram.
The complaint centred on allegations that the French submarine maker paid a commission of more than €114 million (RM560 million based on current exchange rates) to a purported shell company linked to Abdul Razak Baginda, a former close associate of Prime Minister Najib Razak. Najib was the defence minister when the deal for the submarines was sealed.
No comments:
Post a Comment