The Paris Court of Appeal will issue its decision on April 18 on appeals filed by two French defense groups in the investigation into alleged bribes paid in connection with the sale of submarines to Malaysia in 2002, AFP learned Tuesday from a source familiar with the case. with the matter. affair.
Initially scheduled for Tuesday, the announcement of the decision was delayed by a week due to a computer problem, according to this source. During a hearing in February, the investigative chamber addressed several annulment appeals filed by Thales, its subsidiaries and DCNI, which notably questioned the validity of the records made as part of this investigation.
screen contracts
According to elements known to AFP, the attorney general’s office has requested in writing confirmation of the proceeding. At the center of this ten-year instruction, consultancy contracts were concluded on the sidelines of the sale to Malaysia in 2002 of two Scorpene submarines and one Agosta submarine by DCNI, allied with Thales, for almost one billion euros.
French justice suspects that some of these contracts have been used as fronts to pay bribes to then Malaysian Defense Minister Najib Razak to make him opt for the French offer.
The Thales group, several of its subsidiaries, as well as DCNI, were in turn charged in this case between September 2020 and January 2022. They dispute any infringement. Several other people, including former heads of DCNI or Thales International Asia, are also implicated.
The financial investigation judge Aude Buresi closed the investigations in January 2022.
Source: BFM TV
