November 6, 2001	Tuesday	Shaba’an 19, 1422

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LAUSANNE (Switzerland), Nov 5: Switzerland’s high court has decided to let Pakistan have Swiss bank documents tied to former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and two family members, a Swiss justice ministry spokesman said on Monday.

“The highest court decided the evidence can be released to Pakistan,” said spokesman Folco Galli, adding the documents should be sent off soon.

Ms Bhutto, who lives in exile in London and Dubai, was sentenced in absentia to three years in prison by a Pakistani court in June after she failed to show up to face corruption charges.

The Swiss Federal Court in Lausanne published its ruling on the Internet showing it had rejected pleas by three unnamed companies which had sought to bar release of the information to Pakistani authorities.

The documents pertain to accounts held in Geneva in a subsidiary of Barclays Bank and at UBS AG, the court said.

In 1997 Swiss legal authorities seized documents and froze around 20 million francs in bank accounts belonging to Benazir Bhutto, husband Asif Zardari, and her mother.

Geneva’s justice authorities also are conducting a separate legal proceeding against Ms Bhutto.—Reuters