President Zardari and his late wife, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto are acused in stowing close to $60 million of state funds in Swiss bank accounts. PHOTO: EXPRESS/FILE
Prosecutors in Geneva said that the decision was taken on February 4 this year, and that they had only opted to make it public as a result of street protests in Pakistan.
They declined to comment in detail, but the Swiss news portal 20minutes.ch published photographs of anti-Zardari protestors burning Switzerland's flag at a rally in Pakistan.
Zardari and Bhutto were alleged to have siphoned $12 million in state cash in the 1990s, when he was a government minister and she was premier.
Bhutto lost office in 1996, and a year later Pakistan made a formal request for Swiss legal help in a probe of the couple and Bhutto's mother Nusrat Bhutto.
Bhutto went into self-imposed exile in the United Arab Emirates in 1997, returning in 2007, only to be assassinated in a bomb attack on an election rally the same year.
Weeks before Bhutto was killed, Pakistan had withdrawn its request for help from the Swiss, and Geneva investigators formally closed their side of the probe in 2008.
Zardari, meanwhile, was arrested in Pakistan on graft charges after his wife's government fell, before being freed in 2004, going into exile in the United Arab Emirates, then returning after Bhutto's death.
He was elected president in 2008.
In November 2012, however, Pakistan's government renewed its request for Swiss legal assistance after being ordered to do so by its own supreme court.
Geneva prosecutors underlined Friday that no new evidence had emerged since the case was dropped in 2008, meaning they could not reopen the investigation.
In addition, the fact that the alleged offences took place more than 15 years ago meant that the statute of limitations had expired, they said.
They also complained about mixed messages from Pakistan.
Just a month after filing the renewed request, Pakistan sent them a letter stating that the call for a revived probe was linked to domestic politics and that there was no need to heed it.
That amounted to abuse of the legal system, prosecutors said.
COMMENTS (9)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
1726222459-0/trump-(14)1726222459-0-270x192.webp "iranian national charged over alleged irgc plot to assassinate trump")
Laughing all the way to the Bank.
Why the letter following the original request. Who wrote it and at whose behest. The limitations matter was so apparent when the letter was being delayed.
Why the ghost of the past is just haunting politicians while judges and generals are immune from it??
Now Zardari could keep the $60 million denied to Pakistan's treasury. Swiss are smart people and they figured it out that if they return this amount to the Government of Pakistan then other countries will be demanding the same, the corrupted money deposited by their corrupt leaders should be returned too. Americans are the only ones who twisted their arms and demanded the list of those who deposited their money with out paying taxes and some of it was ill gotten. The Swiss know how to stash ill gotten money in their banks from the corrupt and tax cheater around the world and get rich in the process.What way to go.
@F Khan
Totally true.
Has anybody any idea how much public money (from both sides) has been wasted on this case. I am sure it must be more than the amount in dispute.
@Ali (Texas): English please. You don't make any sense.
I have never been fond of BB/AZ. But if FL, GIK, NS & PM have not been able to prove anything against them in 20 years in any court of law then lets shut up and let the country focus on issues at hand.
Just a month after filing the renewed request, Pakistan sent them a letter stating that the call for a revived probe was linked to domestic politics and that there was no need to heed it.
Lol sneaky PPP