Rafale deal row: French NGO files complaint against Dassault

Agencies
November 24, 2018

Paris, Nov 24: French non-governmental organisation (NGO) Sherpa has filed a complaint against aviation giant Dassault to clarify the conditions under which the Rafale deal was made with India in 2016.

The complaint, which has been lodged with the National Financial Prosecutor's Office, further sought details over Dassault's choice to have Reliance group as a partner.

The complaint was lodged on October 26 this year and it "follows the complaint lodged on the 4th of October 2018 by a former Indian Minister and an anti-corruption lawyer with the Central Bureau of Investigation in New Delhi, against the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for "abuse of authority" and "grant of undue advantages" in connection with the sale of Rafale, and the facts revealed by Mediapart and Sherpa's investigation," according to an official press release of Sherpa.

"Anil Ambani, Narendra Modi's close associate, Eric Trappier, CEO of Dassault Aviation, and the former Indian Minister of Defense Manohar Parrikar have also been targeted in the complaint filed in New Delhi for 'complicity'," said Sherpa while referring to a complaint filed by former ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie, and Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan on October 4 in New Delhi.

"Sherpa expects the National Public Prosecutor's Office to promptly investigate the seriousness of the facts and the presumptions on the reported offences: potential corruption, grant of undue advantages, trading in influence, complicity of these offences, concealment of corruption and laundering of these offences," the statement further mentioned.

Founder of Sherpa William Bourdon said, "France cannot do less than India. Cooperation between both countries should be rapidly established, as it is always the case with international grand corruption investigation. Moreover, the hearing of great witnesses is possible and desirable."

However, serious doubts regarding Sherpa's credibility have risen as reports accusing the French NGO chief's involvement in "meddling in African politics" have surfaced on International Policy Digest. The website has laid grave charges against Bourdon and alleged that the NGO is notorious for "destroying the reputation of (specifically) large-scale and vulnerable companies to gain "media attention and funds" in exchange".

Despite the claims, Sherpa's announcement of the filed complaint comes at a time when the Rafale deal controversy has been on the boil.

On November 14 this year, India's Supreme Court had reserved its verdict on the filed petitions that demanded a court-monitored probe into the Rafale deal in which the Indian government bought 36 ready-to-fly jets in a government-to-government deal with France.

Leaders in the Indian opposition have been alleging irregularities in the high-profile deal, with main opposition party Congress president Rahul Gandhi recently challenging Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to participate in a debate over the details of the deal.

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News Network
September 20,2024

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The Israeli military has carried out airstrikes against the Lebanese capital Beirut. On Friday, the military said it had staged a “targeted strike” against the city.

At least five children are among those killed in the attack.

Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen television network said a drone had fired several missiles against Beirut’s heavily-populated Dahiyeh suburb.

According to Lebanon’s official National News (NNA), “five children were martyred in the hostile airstrike.”

The agency added that an F35 jet targeted residential areas with two strikes.

Media outlets cited sources as saying that the attack targeted Ibrahim Aqil, a senior commander of Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement.

Aqil is a member of Hezbollah’s Jihad Council, which is responsible for directing the group’s military and security activities.

He has replaced Fuad Shukr, who was assassinated in an Israeli targeted killing attack against Beirut on July 30. 

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News Network
September 24,2024

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The Israeli regime’s warplanes have conducted extensive airstrikes against towns and villages across Lebanon, killing at least 492 people.

Lebanon’s health ministry announced the death toll on Monday, saying the victims included 35 children and 58 women.

The ministry said at least 1,645 others had also been wounded in the attacks that targeted the areas earlier in the day.

Lebanon’s health minister Firass Abiad said that the health ministry is working to ensure those injured in Israeli strikes are getting the health care they need.

The health minister said he had asked hospitals to stop taking regular, light cases to make space for the wounded from the south.

“We working on directives for the first-aid centres to be turned into places that can receive the wounded. The displaced people who have cancer, kidney failure and other chronic diseases, we have the plan to continue their treatment in different medical centers,” he said.

The country’s media outlets said the aircraft had bombed all the towns and villages lying on the southern border as well as their surroundings.

Israeli warplanes also reportedly targeted eastern Lebanese areas, including the Bekaa Valley and Baalbek.

Lebanese sources said the airstrikes had targeted a total of more than 40 areas in Lebanon during the attacks.

The Sheikh of the Druze community reached out to the Deputy Head of the Supreme Islamic Shia Council and expressed solidarity and reaffirmed support for the people of southern Lebanon, the southern suburbs, and the Bekaa during this critical period for the country.

The Commissioner of Marjayoun-Hassbaya in the Muslim Scouts, Sheikh Hussein Al-Nader, was killed in an Israeli airstrike that targeted his home in the town of Dibbine, Marjayoun district, South Lebanon.

Three people were injured in an Israeli airstrike targeting the Deir El-Zahrani highway, in South Lebanon.

A family of four was killed in Hermel, Bekaa, due to the recent Israeli airstrikes.

Israeli media outlets, meanwhile, alleged that the attacks had hit locations lying as far as 125 kilometers (77 miles) inside the Lebanese territory.

Israeli military spokesman Danieh Hagari said the regime "will engage in [more] extensive and precise strikes” against Lebanon, adding that the attacks would "go on for the near future.”

The regime has markedly intensified its attacks against the country since October 7, when it launched a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement has responded with numerous strikes against the occupied Palestinian territories as a means of both retaliating against the regime and displaying support for the war-hit Gazans.

On Sunday, the group staged its farthest-reaching strikes against the territories since October, firing scores of rockets against the Ramat David Airbase, 20 kilometers (12 miles) southeast of the city of Haifa, and the Rafael weapons manufacturing facility in the Zevulun area north of the city.

It described the strike against the facility as its “initial response” to the regime’s detonation of thousands of booby-trapped pagers and walkie-talkie radios that killed at least 39 people and wounded 3,000 others across Lebanon over Tuesday and Wednesday.

Also on Sunday, Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem said the movement was in a "new phase" in its battle against the regime.

"Threats will not stop us... We are ready to face all military possibilities,” he noted.

Qassem made the remarks while attending the funeral of Ibrahim Aqil, one of the group’s senior commanders.

Aqil had been martyred alongside 37 others, including three children and seven women, during an Israeli attack on a residential building in a southern suburb of Lebanon’s capital Beirut on Friday.

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News Network
September 25,2024

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Hezbollah has launched a ballistic missile at Tel Aviv for the first time, triggering sirens in the city and elsewhere including Netanya, the Lebanese resistance group says. 

Warning sirens sounded in Israel’s economic capital Tel Aviv as a single surface-to-surface missile was intercepted by air defense systems after it was detected crossing from Lebanon, the Israeli military said.

There were no reports of damage or casualties and the military said there was no change to civil defense instructions for central Israel.

The Israeli military said that for the "first time ever" a missile fired by Hezbollah reached the Tel Aviv area. "It is the first time ever a Hezbollah missile reached Tel Aviv area."

Hezbollah and Israel have been exchanging deadly fire since early October last year, shortly after the regime launched a genocidal war against the Gaza Strip following a surprise operation by Hamas.

Earlier, Hezbollah targeted the Israeli Ilaniya military base at the northern side of the occupied territories with a salvo of Fadi-1 rockets. 

The base is reportedly affiliated with the 146th Reserve Division of the Israeli military, which is part of the Northern Command.

The group announced in a brief statement that the operation was carried out in defense of Lebanon and its people. 

Hezbollah also said it targeted a military base near Safad twice with salvos of rockets.

The group stated that it targeted “the Dado base near Safad – the headquarters of the Israeli military’s Northern Command – with a total of 90 rockets in defense of Lebanon and its people.”

Hezbollah said in a separate statement that it unleashed a squadron of attack drones on the headquarters of the Israeli army’s Special Naval Task Force at the Alit Base.

The group said the attack on the Alit base, south of the major port city of Haifa, targeted “the locations of [Israeli] officers and soldiers” and achieved direct hits.

The Lebanese resistance movement has vowed to keep up its retaliatory attacks as long as the Israeli regime continues its Gaza war, which has so far killed at least 41,467 Palestinians, mostly women and children.

Hezbollah officials have repeatedly said they do not want a war with Israel while stressing that they are prepared in case it occurs.

Two Israeli wars waged against Lebanon in 2000 and 2006 were met with strong resistance from Hezbollah, resulting in the retreat of the regime in both conflicts.

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