October 8, 2003	Wednesday	Sha’aban 11, 1424

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PARIS, Oct 7: French prosecutors on Tuesday tried to block a court case being prepared against eight banks accused of money laundering involving Israel, lodging an appeal on the grounds that there was no intent and that an acquittal should be declared.

“We wish to submit several legal points to the court of appeal concerning in particular the elements constituting the crime of money laundering,” the top Paris prosecutor, Yves Bot, said.

The development is the latest twist in an affair that has shaken France’s banking establishment and cast a cloud over 32 senior executives in the institutions named in the affair: France’s Societe Generale, BRED and Societe Marseillaise de Credit, and the French subsidiaries of the American Express Bank, Britain’s Barclays, Israel’s Leumi bank, Lebanon’s Saradar bank, and the National Bank of Pakistan.

A hundred other people, including several rabbis, have also been hauled before investigating magistrate Isabelle Prevost-Desprez who is handling the probe.—AFP