April 02, 2008	Wednesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 24, 1429

GENEVA, April 1: Pakistan has dropped out of a $59.6 million Swiss money-laundering case against Asif Ali Zardari, its lawyers said on Tuesday.

A Pakistani court quashed the last of seven corruption cases against Asif Ali Zardari last month, clearing the way for him to hold office, and ordered the government to withdraw all legal action against him abroad.

He has been charged with aggravated money laundering by a Swiss court and the Pakistani government had joined the case as a civil party.

Swiss lawyers said the lack of a criminal prosecution against Zardari in Pakistan and the government’s withdrawal as a civil party in the Swiss case had greatly weakened the chances of convicting him under Swiss law.

Geneva judicial authorities have spent more than a decade investigating allegations that Bhutto and Zardari took kickbacks from Swiss cargo inspection companies and stashed the proceeds in Swiss bank accounts.

The couple always denied the charges, calling them politically motivated.

The case against Bhutto ended with her assassination last December.

Dominique Henchoz, a lawyer for Pakistan, confirmed its withdrawal as a civil party in remarks to the daily Le Temps. “Just because there has been an amnesty for the good of the country doesn’t mean that no crime was committed,” she added.

Pakistan remains a civil party in the Swiss case against a disbarred Geneva lawyer who was administrator of offshore accounts linked to the inspection kickbacks, Henchoz told the paper. She was not available for comment.

The case is now in the hands of Geneva’s chief prosecutor Daniel Zappelli, who can close it or bring it to trial. Some 60 million Swiss francs remain frozen in Swiss accounts in connection with the case.

“Pakistan has withdrawn as a civil party, which proves it does not feel that it suffered damages,” Zardari’s lawyer Saverio Lembo told Reuters on Tuesday.

“There is no proof of a crime abroad, a primary condition for money laundering ... Everything confirms that the charges against my client were political in nature,” he said.—Reuters