An independent panel on Monday accused the former head of the UN oil-for-food program for Iraq of corruption and said questions remained about UN Secretary-General's Kofi Annan's knowledge of the scandal.
An interim report released by the commission led by former US Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker said, "On the basis of available evidence," oil-for-food program head Benon Sevan "corruptly benefited" from the scheme. It recommended that his immunity be lifted.
It said that Sevan, a 67-year-old Cypriot, received US$147,184 from oil-sales kickbacks under the US$64 billion program.
The allocations were made, at Sevan's request, to African Middle East Petroleum, headed by Egyptian Fakhry Abdelnour, a cousin of former UN secretary-general Boutros Boutros-Ghali.
Cash was deposited between December 1998 and January 2002 to bank accounts of Sevan and his wife in New York, the panel said.
Sevan, who fled to Cyprus two months ago, resigned ahead of the announcement of the charge, which he denied and accused Annan of "sacrificing" him, his lawyer said on Sunday.
Sevan had retired from the UN but remained on staff, receiving a salary of US$1 a year to maintain diplomatic immunity. That job was given to him after he was suspended in February to ensure that he would cooperate with the Volcker panel. Volcker said Sevan "has not responded to our efforts to contact him."
Volcker's commission also said that evidence gathered against Alexander Yakovlev, a former UN procurement officer, was "sufficiently strong" that his UN immunity should also be removed.
Yakovlev had "secretly participated in a scheme to solicit a bribe" from a company bidding for an oil inspection contract, the commission said.
Yakovlev, a Russian, recently resigned his UN post after allegations that he had awarded a UN contract to a company that employed his son.
Yakovlev entered a guilty plea in US court to three charges -- conspiracy, fraud and money laundering -- on Monday.
CONDITIONS: The Russian president said a deal that was scuppered by ‘elites’ in the US and Europe should be revived, as Ukraine was generally satisfied with it Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday said that he was ready for talks with Ukraine, after having previously rebuffed the idea of negotiations while Kyiv’s offensive into the Kursk region was ongoing. Ukraine last month launched a cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, sending thousands of troops across the border and seizing several villages. Putin said shortly after there could be no talk of negotiations. Speaking at a question and answer session at Russia’s Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Putin said that Russia was ready for talks, but on the basis of an aborted deal between Moscow’s and Kyiv’s negotiators reached in Istanbul, Turkey,
In months, Lo Yuet-ping would bid farewell to a centuries-old village he has called home in Hong Kong for more than seven decades. The Cha Kwo Ling village in east Kowloon is filled with small houses built from metal sheets and stones, as well as old granite buildings, contrasting sharply with the high-rise structures that dominate much of the Asian financial hub. Lo, 72, has spent his entire life here and is among an estimated 860 households required to move under a government redevelopment plan. He said he would miss the rich history, unique culture and warm interpersonal kindness that defined life in
A French woman whose husband has admitted to enlisting dozens of strangers to rape her while she was drugged on Thursday told his trial that police had saved her life by uncovering the crimes. “The police saved my life by investigating Mister Pelicot’s computer,” Gisele Pelicot told the court in the southern city of Avignon, referring to her husband — one of 51 of her alleged abusers on trial — by only his surname. Speaking for the first time since the extraordinary trial began on Monday, Gisele Pelicot, now 71, revealed her emotion in almost 90 minutes of testimony, recounting her mysterious
Thailand has netted more than 1.3 million kilograms of highly destructive blackchin tilapia fish, the government said yesterday, as it battles to stamp out the invasive species. Shoals of blackchin tilapia, which can produce up to 500 young at a time, have been found in 19 provinces, damaging ecosystems in rivers, swamps and canals by preying on small fish, shrimp and snail larvae. As well as the ecological impact, the government is worried about the effect on the kingdom’s crucial fish-farming industry. Fishing authorities caught 1,332,000kg of blackchin tilapia from February to Wednesday last week, said Nattacha Boonchaiinsawat, vice president of a parliamentary
RSS