Paris, Nov. 23: The French President, Mr Nicolas Sarkozy, lashed out when asked about alleged 1995 Pakistani arms kickbacks, saying that if journalists questioned him without proof he might as well call them all paedophiles.
“This is crazy,” Mr Sarkozy told journalists on Friday on the sidelines of the Nato summit in Lisbon in an exchange that was picked up by French Internet sites late on Monday.
“No one among you believes I arranged bribes and kickbacks for submarines for Pakistan, it’s unbelievable,” Mr Sarkozy said amid allegations the bribes’ cancellation led to a 2002 Karachi bombing that killed 11 French engineers.
“And you, I have no evidence against you,” he said, singling out a journalist. “Apparently you’re a paedophile... Who told me? I have the absolute conviction — Can you explain yourself?” Mr Sarkozy was apparently referring to a declaration by Mr Charles Millon, the defence minister tasked in 1995 by the then-president, Mr Jacques Chirac, with investigating the bribes, that he had “the absolute conviction there were kickbacks” “See you tomorrow, paedophile friends!” the exasperated President said as he walked out.