According to the Swiss Court's judgement on extradition, one of the middlemen Guido Haschke had told the court that his extradition to Italy and subsequent trial on the kickbacks in the copter deal would affect diplomatic-political-military relations between New Delhi and Rome. He also argued the trial on kickbacks in the AgustaWestland deal would have an impact on the fate of Italian marines facing prosecution in India.
The details of the judgement on extradition of Haschke to Italy have been reported by noted senior journalist Chitra Subramaniam from Geneva. The report appeared in the website called 'The News Minute' on Wednesday also said the extradition judgement detailed the money laundering of the kickbacks to tax havens like Cascina Costa di Somarate in Tunis, Mauritius and lugano.
"Money laundering finalised the payment of alleged bribes and commissions have been committed in Cascina Costa di Somarate in Tunis to Mauritius and lugano in continuation to January 2013," said the report citing the Swiss Court's judgement of October 2013, whose details came into public domain on Wednesday.
The Italian Court proceeding in January had exposed role of senior politicians in India. The communication from the main middleman Christian Michel said for canvassing people close to Congress president Sonia Gandhi was needed to clinch the deal worth Rs 3,600 for the purchase of 12 VVIP helicopters.
"Another reason to keep the Swiss jurisdiction is related, to tell the applicant (Italian Prosecutors), to the political interests at stake between Italy and India. The issue would imply a major clash of political and economic interests between the two countries. Italy's most important public company (Finmeccanica, the suppliers of the helicopters) and it would effect the relations with the political and military authorities in an important country like India, with which Italy would cross currently a deep diplomatic crisis for the story of two sailors Italian soldiers accused murder in India," said Extradition Judgement citing the arguments of the middleman Haschke.