GENEVA, April 22: A Swiss judge resumed hearings on Thursday into accusations of money laundering against former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto and her husband, but both were absent for medical reasons.

Last year, the couple appealed against a higher court conviction and order to pay nearly $12 million to the Pakistan government and magistrates were instructed to begin the case again.

The high-profile case against Ms Benazir, who lives in self-imposed exile in London and Dubai, underscores political where she still leads the party in opposition to President Pervez Musharraf.

Ms Benazir's lawyer in Geneva, Alec Reymond, said Ms Bhutto would be ready to appear in June, but he declined to detail her ailment. "She has a medical certificate," he said.

Earlier this week, Ms Benazir's husband Asif Ali Zardari, who has been in jail in Pakistan since 1996, rejected a surprise offer from the government to allow him to travel to Switzerland for the same hearing, saying that he was too ill to travel.

"The present status is that we are nearly at the very beginning, at zero. We are back at the instruction phase, the fact-finding phase," Mr Reymond said. The lawyer said Ms Benazir had wanted the investigations to start anew and wished to participate in the hearings to demonstrate her innocence.

Her husband Asif Zardari has been in prison since Ms Benazir was thrown out in November 1996. But he has not been convicted in most cases brought against him, causing considerable embarrassment for the authorities, and his refusal to cut a deal has won him new respect in Pakistan. -Reuters