LONDON, Nov 28: The Spanish authorities have ordered the closure of investigations on charges of money laundering against former prime minister Benazir Bhutto since allegations could not be proved for want of credible evidence, reported Spanish national daily “ABC”.

The Prosecutor of the High Court of Valencia has asked the provisional dismissal of the case initiated by a court of Onteniente (Valencia) against the former Pakistani prime minister, her husband and several others for an alleged crime of money laundering of capital allegedly acquired through kickbacks. After more than three years of investigation, according to the report, the prosecutor concluded that “it has not been possible to prove the illicit origin of the assets for which it was held that came from money laundering”.

The Tribunal Superior de Justicia de la Comunidad Valenciana has requested the provisional dismissal of the case probed by a court of Onteniente (Valencia) against the former Pakistani prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, her husband, and various others) for suspected money laundering crime, supposedly, through collection of illegal commissions.

The probe was held for two operations, an income “on money laundering suspicious” of dollars and pounds sterling in a branch office of Bancaja situated in Onteniente and the purchase of a dwelling in the Costa del Sol. A probe was ordered into the accusation interposed by the District Attorney’s Office against Ms Bhutto and Abdul Rehman Malik and Siyed Hassan Ali Jafri and three years of investigations have not been able to establish these allegations. Hence the case has been asked to be closed.

It may be mentioned that realising that the allegations cannot be substantiated the government of Pakistan had sought to be excluded as a party from the case. Its realisation came after it had spent millions of dollars pursuing it without being a beneficiary of what was to end as a prodigious exercise in futility.

Ms Bhutto’s other two cases -- one is Swiss courts (Cotecna) and the other of Rockwood House in the UK (which is actually a Zardari case), are still pending final decisions.