GENEVA: Pakistan has not asked Swiss authorities to reopen a corruption case against President Asif Ali Zardari, Geneva's public prosecutor said on Wednesday.
In any case, Zardari enjoys immunity from prosecution as a head of state, Prosecutor-General Daniel Zappelli told Reuters.
“I have not received any request,” Zappelli said, commenting on news from Islamabad that Pakistan's anti-corruption agency would ask the Swiss to revive the case.
Zappelli said that Pakistan's embassy in Switzerland had officially notified him in June 2008 of a decision by Pakistan's prosecutor-general in April of that year to withdraw proceedings against Zardari.
He said that Pakistan's prosecutor-general had decided that the contracts at the heart of the kickbacks case had been awarded in good faith.
“In Pakistan they decided that no crime had been committed,” he said.
Zappelli also noted that Zardari and Bhutto had been sentenced by the High Court in Lahore in 1999, but in 2001 Pakistan's Supreme Court had cancelled this verdict and sent it back to Lahore for a new decision. However, there had not been a new trial in the nine years since then.
A trial for money-laundering in Switzerland would have to be based on the proceeds of criminal activity, but that would require proof that a crime had been committed, he said.
In any case under international law Zardari enjoyed immunity from prosecution as a head of state - unless that state itself lifts the immunity.
“Immunity is the key question,” Zappelli said. “We can't prosecute Mr Zardari while he has immunity unless Pakistan lifts that immunity. And if he doesn't have immunity, why don't they try him in Pakistan?”
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