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Last update - 13:36 31/07/2008
Gaydamak's trial on gun-running charges to proceed as planned
By Haaretz Service
Tags: France, Angola 

Tycoon Arcadi Gaydamak's trial of charges of gun-running will continue as scheduled, after a prosecutor refused calls to close the case, French media reported on Thursday.

Gaydamak's trial deals with charges of illegal gun running to Angola, a case referred to as "Angolagate" by the media. Gaydamak is suspected of being part of the illegal, secret shipping of arms from Eastern Europe to the government of Angola during the 1990s.
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Last week, French authorities renewed the arrest warrant for Gaydamak, who left France for Israel in 2000, partly to escape the charges. France reportedly has denied a request that Gaydamak be exempt from serving jail time if he voluntarily returns to the country to face charges.

French legal sources have stated that French Defense Minister Hervé Morin sent a letter to the defense team of Pierre Falcon, a defendant in the case, in which he wrote that Falcon did not in his opinion break the law by running guns to Angola. The mailing of the letter is apparently an unprecedented event in French legal history.

Morin had recommended to the French Justice Ministry and court that the case against Gaydamak and his co-defendants be dropped.

The officials reasoned that French law could not have been violated because the alleged arms deals were not executed in France.

The trial against Gaydamak and Falcone, accused of organizing the financing for arms sales from Russia to Angola, was scheduled to begin on October 6.

Gaydamak's spokesperson Yossi Milstein had recently said the trial is expected to be called off and said that Gaydamak is now free to travel within France.

The tycoon recently lashed out at a Tel Aviv University student who asked him about his business interests in Angola, telling him to "shut your mouth and go to hell."

Gaydamak delivered a speech at the university on the history of Angola since the Cold War and claimed that he was responsible for peace there.

"I brought peace to Angola, now there is prosperity because of me," he said. Gaydamak added that his success in the country had encouraged stability throughout the whole continent of Africa
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  1.   I am sure Arcadi Gaydamak is shaking in his boots! 13:58  |  Wise Saba 31/07/08
  2.   Political persecution 14:36  |  Brod 31/07/08
  3.   wise saba 18:07  |  Axel 31/07/08
  4.   KEEP GAYDAMAK THE TENT GIVER TO ISRAELIS TIED UP IN COURT;HE 18:29  |  glenna 31/07/08
  5.   just think for a minute 18:34  |  remember 31/07/08
  6.   Gaydamak 18:45  |  Jack 01/08/08
  7.   Yet another Leftist Soviet-style witch hunt! 22:00  |  Yaakov K. 02/08/08
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