JURIST - Paper Chase: Former Pakistan PM wanted on corruption charges

[JURIST] International arrest warrants have been issued for former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto [BBC profile] and husband Asif Ali Zardari [BBC profile] on charges of corruption in a number of unspecified cases stemming from the former prime minister's term in office from the late 1980s to the early 1990s. Interpol [official website] issued "red notices" Thursday, which serve to inform other countries that arrest warrants exist for the pair, but leave it up to individual countries to take action. The exiled prime minister and her husband reside in Britain and the United Arab Emirates, but are currently on a lecture tour in the United States. Bhutto informed reporters [press release] at a press conference Thursday that they plan to return to Pakistan to face the charges. Zardari, a senior politician from the Pakistan Peoples Party [party website], spent eight years in detention on corruption charges before being released on bail last year, and both Bhutto and Zardari have been convicted in absentia on separate corruption charges. Pakistani officials are also pursuing a case involving money laundering charges in Switzerland. Bhutto was convicted in 2003 in Switzerland, but the conviction was thrown out on appeal. AP has more.

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