The Agusta scandal (, ), alternatively known as the Agusta–Dassault Case, was a major

political scandal In politics, a political scandal is an action or event regarded as morally or legally wrong and causing general public outrage. Politicians, government officials, Political party, party officials and Lobbying, lobbyists can be accused of various ...

which occurred in

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

during the 1990s, based on allegations that two multinational companies had used bribery to secure large

defence procurement Military acquisition or defense acquisition is the "bureaucratic management and procurement process", dealing with a nation's investments in the technologies, programs, and product support necessary to achieve its national security strategy and ...

contracts. The companies in question,

Agusta Agusta was an Italian helicopter manufacturer. It was based in Samarate, Northern Italy. The company was founded by Count Giovanni Agusta in 1923, who flew his first aeroplane in 1907. The MV Agusta motorcycle manufacturer began as an offshoot ...

and

Dassault Groupe Industriel Marcel Dassault SAS (; also GIM Dassault or Dassault Group) is a French corporate group established in 1929 with the creation of Société des Avions Marcel Bloch (now Dassault Aviation) by Marcel Dassault, later led by his so ...

, bribed numerous political office-holders in 1988 in order to secure a large order of

Agusta A109 The AgustaWestland AW109, originally the Agusta A109, is a lightweight, twin-engine, eight-seat multi-purpose helicopter designed and initially produced by the Italian rotorcraft manufacturer Agusta. It was the first all-Italian helicopter to b ...

helicopters and the contract for re-fitting Belgian

F-16 Fighting Falcon The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is an American single-engine supersonic Multirole combat aircraft, multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superio ...

fighter jets respectively. The scandal came to light during investigations into the death of the socialist politician André Cools in 1991 and an official enquiry was opened in 1993. Numerous senior figures in both Walloon and Flemish socialist parties were implicated, including the incumbent

Secretary General of NATO The secretary general of NATO is the chief civil servant of the NATO, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), an intergovernmental military alliance with 32 member states. The officeholder is an international diplomat responsible for coordinat ...

Willy Claes Willem Werner Hubert "Willy" Claes (; born 24 November 1938) is a Belgian politician who served as the eighth Secretary General of NATO, from 1994 to 1995. Claes was forced to resign from his NATO position after he was found guilty of corruptio ...

who was forced to resign. The Agusta scandal was the first of a series of highly publicised scandals in Belgium. It was followed by the revelations about the " Hormone Mafia", the Dioxin affair, and the Dutroux affair.

History

Investigation and exposure

The investigation into the purchase was started by the investigative team looking into the 1991 assassination of André Cools, a politician of the Francophone ''

Parti Socialiste ''Parti Socialiste'' (Socialist Party) may refer to: * Parti Socialiste (Belgium) * Parti Socialiste (France) * Parti Socialiste (Mauritius) (PS), see List of political parties in Mauritius * Parti Socialiste Mauricien (PSM), see List of polit ...

'' (PS) and former

Deputy Prime Minister A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a Minister (government), government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to th ...

, when it turned out that Cools had knowledge about the Agusta deal. An official investigation into the deal was started in January 1993, by judge

Véronique Ancia Véronique can refer to: * Véronique (given name), a French female name * Véronique River, a river in the Côte-Nord region of the province of Quebec, Canada. * Véronique (rocket), a French sounding rocket * ''Véronique'' (operetta), compose ...

, when a

search warrant A search warrant is a court order that a magistrate or judge issues to authorize Police, law enforcement officers to conduct a Search and seizure, search of a person, location, or vehicle for evidence of a crime and to Confiscation, confiscate an ...

was issued for Agusta and its lobbyist Georges Cywie. In January 1994, the

Belgian Senate The Senate ( ; ; ) is one of the two chambers of the Bicameralism, bicameral Belgian Federal Parliament, Federal Parliament of Belgium, the other being the Chamber of Representatives (Belgium), Chamber of Representatives. It is considered to be ...

removed the

immunity Immunity may refer to: Medicine * Immunity (medical), resistance of an organism to infection or disease * ''Immunity'' (journal), a scientific journal published by Cell Press Biology * Immune system Engineering * Radiofrequence immunity ...

on the

Minister-President of Wallonia The minister-president of Wallonia () is the head of the Government of Wallonia, the executive power of Wallonia, one of the three regions of Belgium. The official residence, known as the Élysette, is in Namur, along the Meuse River. The ministe ...

Guy Spitaels Guy Gustave Arthur Ghislain Spitaels (; 3 September 1931 – 21 August 2012) was a Belgian politician of the Socialist Party. He was the 7th Minister-President of Wallonia from 1992 to 1994 and president of his party for thirteen years, until he ...

, and the minister , both from the PS, and members of the

Walloon Government The Government of Wallonia (, ) or Walloon Government (, ) is the executive branch of Wallonia and one of the six governments in Belgium. It is located in Namur, where the Parliament of Wallonia is also seated Compositions Current compositi ...

Guy Coëme Guy Coëme (born 21 August 1946) is a Francophone Belgian politician for the Socialist Party (PS). He served as 5th Minister-President of Wallonia from February to May 1988. Coëme served as minister of defence in the government Martens VIII a ...

, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transportation for the PS resigned that same month. Frank Vandenbroucke, Minister of Foreign Affairs in the

Federal Government A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a political union, union of partially federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a #Federal governments, federal government (federalism) ...

for the Flemish '' Socialistische Partij'' (SP), resigned from his post in March 1994.

, member of the SP and

, resigned on 20 October 1995.

Prosecution

A criminal trial was handled by the

Court of Cassation A court of cassation is a high-instance court that exists in some judicial systems. Courts of cassation do not re-examine the facts of a case; they only interpret the relevant law. In this, they are appellate courts of the highest instance. In ...

, which is responsible for cases involving minister in function. The public

prosecutor A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the adversarial system, which is adopted in common law, or inquisitorial system, which is adopted in Civil law (legal system), civil law. The prosecution is the ...

was . The court had most of its verdicts ready on 23 December 1998. Willy Claes received a three-year probationary sentence and a five-year prohibition on running for public office. Guy Coëme and Guy Spitaels both received three-year probationary sentences with a five-year prohibition on running for public office.

Serge Dassault Serge Dassault (; born Serge Paul André Bloch; 4 April 1925 – 28 May 2018) was a French engineer, businessman and politician. He was the chairman and chief executive officer of Dassault Group, and a conservative politician. According to ...

, of the Dassault company, received an 18-month probationary sentence for

bribery Bribery is the corrupt solicitation, payment, or Offer and acceptance, acceptance of a private favor (a bribe) in exchange for official action. The purpose of a bribe is to influence the actions of the recipient, a person in charge of an official ...

. In total, Agusta and Dassault paid more than 160 million

francs The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' ( King of the Franks) used on early French coins and until the 18th centur ...

(about 4 million

euro The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

s) to the ''Parti Socialiste'' and ''Socialistische Partij'' in bribes.

Verdicts

The ''Parti Socialiste'' had to return 49 million francs in bribes, the ''Socialistische Partij'' 111 million francs. Claes, Coëme, Delanghe, Hermanus, Mangé, Puelinckx, Spitaels and Wallyn were also barred from running for political office, or working in the civil service, for five years.

European Court of Human Rights

After the verdicts were handed down, many of the convicted parties applied to the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The court hears applications alleging that a co ...

(ECHR) to get the verdicts revoked, because the

in Belgium does not allow for an appeal process, which would have been in violation of the

European Convention on Human Rights The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR; formally the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms) is a Supranational law, supranational convention to protect human rights and political freedoms in Europe. Draf ...

. On 2 June 2005, the ECHR judged that in the case of the two ministers, Willy Claes and Guy Coëme, both men were given a lawful trial at the Court of Cassation. The trial of the five others who applied to the ECHR, Dassault, Hermanus, Delanghe, Puelinckx and Wallyn, at the Court of Cassation, was found to have contravened the European Convention on Human Rights, but their verdicts would stand nonetheless.

External links

ECHR judgment
{{AgustaWestland aircraft, state=collapsed Agusta Dassault Group Political scandals in Belgium Bribery scandals Corruption in Europe Criminal investigation Military scandals 1990s in Belgium Weapons trade Trials in Belgium Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights European Court of Human Rights cases involving Belgium 1988 scandals 1993 scandals 1994 scandals 1995 scandals 1998 crimes in Belgium Corruption in Belgium