The Expected Event Occured

I was not surprised at all when I read the following article in Malaysiakini.

French lawyer William Bourdon, who was in Penang last night to speak about the controversial Scorpene submarines deal allegedly involving millions of ringgit in kickbacks to Malaysian government officials, has been detained at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.


According to Suaram director Cynthia Gabriel, immigration officials boarded the aircraft and detained Bourdon after their plane touched down at KLIA in Sepang this morning.


"He has been taken to the immigration holding centre at KLIA," Gabriel told Malaysiakini.


Initially, the immigration officers, did not allow Bourdon's wife, also a lawyer, to accompany him to the centre.


ops scorpene dinner 220711 willian bourdonFollowing some negotiations, she was allowed to do so.


According to Gabriel, the officers wanted to "question" Bourdon.


At a packed dinner in Penang last night to raise funds for the pending Scorpene trial in France in which the NGO Suaram is involved, Bourdon (left) said the case would also expose details of secret meetings of those involved.


He said those beneficiaries and kickbacks from the RM7.3 billion Scorpene submarine deal would be exposed when the matter is raised at the French corruption trial against defence giant DCNS.

Bourdon arrived yesterday but did not go through KLIA immigration as he was in transit to Penang.

The 55-year-old French lawyer is due to speak at a fund-raising dinner in Petaling Jaya tonight and at another dinner in Ipoh tomorrow.

Third commission
Suaram has filed the legal case in Paris with the help of Bourdon over claims that French defence giant DCNS paid RM540 million in commission to Perimekar over the purchase of two submarines.

NONESuch payments are illegal under French laws. Perimekar is a subsidiary of KS Ombak Laut Sdn Bhd, of which the major shareholder is Abdul Razak's wife, Mazlinda Makhzan.

Bourdon has uncovered another 30 million euros (RM150 million) paid to DCNS' commercial network Thales and another 2.5 million euros (RM7.5 million) to an unknown recipient.

Suaram recently revealed that a third commission, an amount bigger than the earlier two, had been paid to highly placed government officials.

Bourdon and his team of lawyers at Sherpa - a not-for-profit organisation he founded in 2001 that focuses on improving legal tools to promote corporate social responsibility - have been providing pro bono services to Suaram thus far.

Active in initiating legal procedures in France against former Serbian and Rwandan leaders suspected of crimes against humanity and war crimes, Bourdon also served as legal council for Franco-Chilean families who were victims of the former dictator Augusto Pinochet.

From 1995 to 2000, he was general-secretary of the International Federation for Human Rights (IFHR)

TO BE UPDATED LATER

-masterwordsmith