Mitterrand–Pasqua affair

President José Eduardo dos Santos of Angola met Jonas Savimbi of UNITA in Bicesse/Portugal and signed the Bicesse Accords, a peace agreement that attempted unsuccessfully to end the Angolan Civil War, on May 31, 1991, with the mediation of the Portuguese government. The accords laid out a transition to multi-party democracy under the supervision of the United Nations' UNAVEM II mission with a presidential election in a year. The accords attempted to demobilise the 152,000 active fighters and integrate the remaining government troops and UNITA rebels into a 50,000-strong Angolan Armed Forces (FAA). The FAA would consist of a national army with 40,000 troops, navy with 6,000, and air force with 4,000. While UNITA largely did not disarm, the FAA complied with the accord and demobilised, leaving the government disadvantaged. At the same time, the Cuban troops that had helped MPLA forces to push back the South African army and UNITA rebels during the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale, completed their withdrawal from Angola. This meant that the MPLA would have an even greater disadvantage if fighting resumed (as they were aligned with the FAA). Angola held a presidential election in 1992. In the first round dos Santos officially received 49.57% of the vote and Savimbi won 40.6%. Savimbi said the election had neither been free nor fair and refused to participate in the second round. International observers, however, affirmed that the elections had been largely free and fair. Savimbi, along with eight opposition parties and many other election observers, said the election had been neither free nor fair. The MPLA massacred over ten thousand UNITA and FNLA voters nationwide in a few days in what was known as the Halloween Massacre. UNITA renewed its guerrilla war, capturing five of Angola's eighteen provincial capitals. ==Arms sales==

With the MPLA on the verge of defeat, dos Santos contacted Jean-Bernard Curial, the former French Socialist Party Southern Africa expert, and asked him to come to Luanda. When he came back, Curial, supportive of dos Santos, contacted members of the government, President's advisor for African Affairs, Bruno Delahe and Jean-Christophe Mitterrand, son of then-President François Mitterrand. Jean-Christophe referred Curial to Pierre Falcone, head of , a consortium of companies, and adviser to a parastatal run by the right-wing Interior Minister Charles Pasqua. Pasqua believed that in the early 1990s the U.S. government's support for UNITA had diminished while tacit support for the MPLA increased because peace would increase oil output. He argued that if Mitterrand's position on Angola did not change in kind, French oil companies would miss out on a vital opportunity. The Angolan government bought USD $47 million worth of ammunition, mortar, and artillery from the Slovakian company ZTS-OZOS on November 7, 1993, which dos Santos received in December. In April 1994 the government bought $463 million worth of fighter aircraft and tanks. By late 1994 the Angolan government had purchased $633 million worth of weapons. Dos Santos secretly had Elísio de Figueiredo, the former ambassador of Angola to France, act as Angola's envoy to friendly contacts in France. Falcone worked with the Angolan government through Figueiredo. ==Scandal uncovered==

Jean-Charles Marchiani, Pasqua's subordinate, allegedly went to Luanda and signed an agreement with dos Santos on November 29, 1994, that promised to organise a better relationship with the French government in which some ministers, Leotard (defence minister), and Alain Madelin (Minister for finances) had openly supported Jonas Savimbi for many years. In exchange, they seemed to receive Angolese political and financial agreement for Pasqua's party, which was running for European elections. Then, Jacques Chirac planned to run for president in the 1995 election. When Pasqua endorsed Édouard Balladur, Chirac's rival, Chirac's supporters told the French Tax Office about Falcone's arms shipments and alleged income tax evasion. While there is agreement that no arms ever passed through France, the Tax Office investigated individuals connected with the scandal because agreements were allegedly signed in Paris. Allain Guilloux, Brenco International's fiscal lawyer in France, said that the Angolan government had agreed to Marchiani's deal in Luanda, not Paris. A judge found Mitterrand guilty in 2004 of tax fraud and gave him a suspended sentence of 30 months in prison. In April 2007, the investigative magistrate indicted 42 people, including Jean-Christophe Mitterrand, Jacques Attali, Charles Pasqua and Jean-Charles Marchiani, for having received illegal payments from Pierre Falcone. Arcadi Gaydamak and Falcone were also indicted. The writer Paul-Loup Sulitzer was also indicted and charged of having received €380,000 from Falcone. The Union for a Popular Movement deputy Georges Fenech was charged of having received €15,200 in 1997 from Brenco. The trial started in 2008, in absentia of Gaydamak who left for Israel. Sulitzer admitted taking €300,000 in return for information in December 2008 and testified against Falcone. He accused prosecutors of "trying to kill a mosquito with a nuclear bomb". Sentencing The sentences for the "Angolagate affair" were handed down on October 27, 2009. Charles Pasqua and Jean-Charles Marchiani were found guilty of taking money from Gaydamak and Falcone that they knew was proceeds of crime. Marchiani was sentenced to three months in prison. Falcone, who tried and failed to claim diplomatic immunity in the case, was taken into custody by police after the judge had finished reading out the sentences. In total, 36 individuals were convicted of various levels of involvement in the scandal, 21 of whom appealed the decision. Appeal decision The Paris Court of Appeal's decision was given on April 29, 2011, and its findings were quite different. The Paris Court of Appeal overturned the convictions of former Interior Minister Charles Pasqua and of Jean-Charles Marchiani. The charges against Pierre Falcone and Arcadi Gaydamak were also dropped. The Court of Appeal particularly recognized that they had acted under the authority of a "state mandate" issued by the Angolan government, which sought to "ensure the survival" of the country and that it was "in that context and while the situation worsened" that it had asked Pierre Falcone and Arcadi Gaydamak to acquire arms, food and medicine. ==See also==