12 September 2004	Sunday	26 Rajab 1425

ISLAMABAD, Sept 11: The Pakistan government served a legal notice on Saturday on Asif Ali Zardari from a Swiss magistrate for "additional indictment for aggravated money laundering" in the SGS case, said a spokesman for the government.

On the other hand, Pakistan People's Party (PPP) spokesman Senator Farhatullah Babar said the legal notice had not been handed over to Mr Zardari and he had just been informed about it by a district and sessions judge.

The government spokesman, according to an official handout, said that a 'rogatory letter', containing Swiss examining magistrate's notification of additional indictment for aggravated money laundering had been served on Mr Zardari in the SGS case.

The notice, he said, originated from the Swiss magistrate's court in Geneva and was routed to the Pakistan government through the Swiss embassy in Islamabad.

According to him, the rogatory letter says that Mr Zardari's initial indictment of Oct 30, 1998, is extended as indictment for professional money laundering, "for having committed obstruction in identification of the origin, discovery and the forfeiture of the incriminated funds. The accused thereby obtained an important turnover or profit. The charges further explained that the accused in his professional money laundering course was also aware of the involvement and obtaining of important turnover or profit by the third parties."

The government spokesman said the Swiss request for service of notice was referred to the Lahore High Court (LHC) chief justice who directed the district and sessions judge, Rawalpindi, to serve the rogatory letter on Mr Zardari and put the questions enclosed in the letter to him and record his answers for submission to the LHC.

He said Mr Zardari had been summoned by the Swiss magistrate twice, but on both the occasions, he refused to attend the hearings on medical grounds despite the government's offer to undertake all arrangements for his travel to Switzerland. He further said that under the Swiss law, the accused could face a sentence up to six years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine up to Swiss Francs one million in the aggravated money laundering case.