PARIS, Jan 2, 2012 (AFP) - President Nicolas Sarkozy knew about a shell company used to channel arms sales commissions in the 1990s, French media said Monday, amid a probe into alleged illegal party funding in France.

The Liberation daily quoted testimony to a judge from a former senior civil servant that in 1994 then-budget minister Sarkozy authorised the creation of Luxembourg-based company Heine to pay intermediaries in arms deals, notably with Pakistan.

"Clearly the budget minister necessarily gave his agreement for the creation of Heine," Gerard-Philippe Menayas, former head of the DCNI defence ministry agency in charge of naval exports, was quoted as saying when interviewed on December 2.

"Given the importance of the matter, this decision could only have been taken at the level of the minister's personal staff."

Several people, including aides to Sarkozy, are accused of going to Switzerland to pick up cases of cash channelled through Heine to finance then prime minister Edouard Balladur's unsuccessful 1995 presidential election campaign.

The payment of arms sales commissions was legal in France until 2000, but the payment of kickbacks back to France was and is illegal. The probe focuses on the 1994 sale of submarines to Pakistan and frigates to Saudi Arabia.

In 1995, Sarkozy was the campaign spokesman for his mentor Balladur, as well as his budget minister, and the complex case has threatened to derail the unpopular president's re-election bid later this year.

Magistrates are also probing whether a 2002 Karachi bombing that killed 11 French engineers was revenge for the cancellation of bribes secretly promised to Pakistani officials in the submarine deal.

A Luxembourg police report already in January 2010 said that Sarkozy had given his agreement to set up Heine.

Sarkozy has repeatedly denied having anything to do with the affair, although two of his aides, Thierry Gaubert and Nicolas Bazire, have been already charged, as has former minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres.

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사르코지, 무기거래 커미션 의혹 커져

(연합뉴스) 프랑스에서 파장이 일고 있는 불법 무기거래 수수료 의혹인, 이른바 '카라치 커넥션'에 니콜라 사르코지 대통령이 관련됐다는 의혹이 더 커지고 있다.

좌파성형 일간지인 리베라시옹은 불법 무기거래 수수료를 전달하는 통로가 됐던 명의뿐인 회사의 존재와 불법 커미션 수수 사실을 사르코지 대통령이 알고 있었다는 증언이 나왔다고 2일(현지시간) 보도했다.

국방부 산하 해군 수출을 맡고 있는 DCNI의 제라르-필립 머네야 전 청장은  "당시 예산담당 장관이었던 그가 '엔' 설립 허가에 분명히 동의했다"고 말했다.

'엔'은 룩셈부르크에 설립된 명목뿐인 회사로 파키스탄 등 외국에 무기를  판매한 뒤 불법 수수료를 파키스탄과 당시 사르코지 장관이 소속된 여당에 전달하는 통로 역할을 한 것으로 추정된다.

엔은 주로 파키스탄에 대한 불법 수수료 전달 통로 역할을 한 것으로 알려졌다.

사르코지 당시 예산장관의 개인보좌관을 포함해 몇몇 인사들은 스위스로 가서, 현금 가방을 직접 챙겨왔다는 혐의를 받고 있으며 이 돈은 에두아르 발라뒤르 당시 총리의 대선 자금으로 쓰인 것으로 추정된다.

발라뒤르 전 총리의 정치적 지원을 받았고, 그의 선거 대변인 역할을 했던 사르코지 대통령은 지금까지 한결같이 '카라치 커넥션'과 무관함을 주장하고 있다.