Kickbacks scandal hits French establishment

“Did they die for kickbacks?” Humanitéreports on yet another French “affaire d’état”, or political scandal. Eight years after the 8 May 2002 bomb blast which killed 11 French naval engineers working on the construction of submarines in Pakistan, investigators are increasingly drawn to a theory that has long been advanced by relatives of the victims: the bomb attack was “linked to the existence of ‘retrocommissions’ [sums of money presented as standard commissions, which also include an illegal payment that is returned to the seller]. “These payments were subsequently used to finance former Prime Minister Edouard Balladur’s 1995 presidential campaign, which was in part organised by his spokesman Nicolas Sarkozy,” writes the daily. According to the families of the victims, the bombing was a reprisal for the suspension of commissions ordered by Jacques Chirac when he took over the office having defeated Edouard Balladur and other candidates.