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Disgraced Kohl faces hearing in financing probe |
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June 30, 2000
BERLIN
(AP) - After months of buildup, disgraced former Chancellor
Helmut Kohl finally takes the stand in hearings examining whether cash
donations influenced decisions during his 16 years in power.
Kohl's
long-awaited testimony before a parliamentary investigating
committee Thursday gives him a chance to counter allegations about murky
dealings under his administration that have dirtied his reputation as the
chancellor who united Germany in 1990.
The
party financing scandal that erupted last fall with Kohl's admission
that he accepted illegal donations as chancellor has developed into an
enduring political drama that dogs the conservative Christian Democratic
party once led by Kohl.
But
comments from his attorney and leading Christian Democrats made
it clear that Kohl, 70, will remain silent on the nub of the inquiry - who
gave him some 2 million marks (dlrs 1 million) in undeclared campaign
funds in the 1990s. Even his own party has pressed Kohl to reveal the
names.
Kohl
insists the donors were citizens who wanted to support the party's
work in former communist East Germany in the early 1990s. He said he
promised them anonymity and refuses to break his word.
Also
under investigation by the parliamentary panel are several business
deals under the Kohl government in which kickbacks allegedly flowed,
including a tank sale to Saudi Arabia and the privatization
of a major oil refinery in eastern Germany that was sold to French concern
Elf Aquitaine.
Facing
a panel dominated by the governing center-left parties, Kohl
was expected to cite a pending criminal investigation against him in
refusing to answer questions during the daylong hearing.
Earlier
testimony by former Kohl aides shed little light on the scandal
or the role of a businessman at its center, Karlheinz Schreiber.
Schreiber,
currently fighting extradition from Canada on German tax
evasion charges, allegedly handed over 1 million marks (dlrs 500,000) in
cash to Kohl aides at a Swiss shopping mall in 1991. He also
reportedly was involved in the tank sale.
But
Schreiber shielded Kohl in an interview with the news channel n-tv
this week, rejecting rumors that he lobbied the Kohl government with cash
to support arms deals and other business projects. Schreiber said he met
Kohl a few times but "at no time" talked about business.
Kohl,
whose anglegal basis," Hirsch, a
former vice president of parliament, said after a four-month investigation of chancellery files ordered by Schroeder. |