A French court handed down verdicts on 27 October in the Angolagate trial, a corruption and arms brokering scandal involving prominent French politicians and businessmen. Between 1993 and 1998, Russian-born Israeli Arkadi Gaydamak and his French/Brazilian/Angolan associate Pierre Falcone illegally shipped $791 million worth of weapons to the Angolan government. The exports had not been authorised by the French government, and were therefore illegal under the French arms trade law.

Gaydamak and Falcone used their French-based firm and its eastern European subsidiary to obtain a loan from the French bank BNP Paribas to buy weapons from a Russian company. The weapons did not pass through French territory, but the contract was signed in France. This meant the French law applied, and authorisation should have been sought.

Prosecutors also accused Gaydamak and Falcone of failing to declare millions in dollars in income from the deal, and paying bribes to French and Angolan officials in exchange for political and commercial favours. The son of former French president François Mitterrand, Jean-Christophe, and Senator Charles Pasqua were convicted of bribery.

The huge Soviet-made arsenal that fuelled Angola's bloody civil war included 420 tanks, 150,000 shells, 170,000 anti-personnel mines, 12 helicopters and six warships. It is estimated that half a million people were killed in Angola between 1975 and 2002, when the war finally came to an end.

Benoît Muracciole from Amnesty International France said: “If Falcone had signed this contract outside of France, the French courts could not have prosecuted him. Angolagate illustrates the need for an Arms Trade Treaty which would include strong global controls on brokers like Falcone, preventing them from arranging arms deals that would likely be used to violate international human rights law. The trial also shows the urgent need for the French government to put before the National Assembly the draft law to control arms brokers which has been shamefully waiting for several years.”