Cyprus Mail, Cyprus
Feb 15 2007
US congressmen request Sevan’s extradition
By Jean Christou
TWO U.S. members of Congress have asked the Cyprus embassy in
Washington to help secure the extradition of Benon Sevan, the ex-UN
head of the Iraq oil-for-food-programme (OFFP).
Sevan, 69, a Cypriot of Armenian descent was indicted in New York
last month on charges of bribery and corruption in connection with
the OFFP, which yielded millions in kickbacks to the Saddam Hussein
regime.
The two members of congress were Republican Tom Lantos, who chairs
the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, and another
Republican, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida.
In a letter to Andreas Kakouris, the Cypriot ambassador in the US
they said Cyprus’ membership in the European Union was seen as
"heralding a new era of international cooperation by your country."
"In this context, we trust that your government will undertake robust
efforts to investigate, locate and extradite Mr Sevan, so that he may
be fairly tried for his alleged violations of United States law and
international confidence," the letter said.
Cyprus does not extradite its citizens and no extradition
documentation has been sent to Cyprus requesting that Sevan be
extradited.
The US embassy in Nicosia said yesterday it was `not aware of any
such request’ to the Cypriot authorities.
`We have not received anything yet,’ government spokesman
Christodoulos Pashiardis also confirmed.
According to last month’s indictment the US has lodged a warrant for
the arrest of Sevan and Ephraim Nadler, the brother-in-law of former
Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali for their alleged involvement
in the kickbacks scandal.
Sevan is accused of receiving some $160,000. However according to his
lawyers, the indictment is based only on two cash deposits, one of
$5,000 in August 2001 and another of $1,200 in January 2002.
Nadler and Sevan have been charged with wire fraud, based on `their
depriving the United Nations of its right to Sevan’s honest
services’, bribery concerning an organisation (the UN) `that receives
more than $10,000 annually from the federal government’, and
conspiracy to commit these offences.
Nadler faces up to 112 years in jail and Sevan up to 50 years. Sevan
insists he received the money from his late aunt in Nicosia over a
number of years.
Yesterday he told the Cyprus Mail he had nothing to hide. He also
said that when he returned to Cyprus some 18 months ago he was not
aware that as a Cypriot citizen he could not be extradited to the US.
`I came home because it’s my country,’ he said.
Sevan said he too had not heard anything about the US authorities
commencing extradition procedures against him.
Lantos said in his letter to the Cypriot embassy that a former
Cypriot ambassador Euripides Evriviades had promised his government
would help locate Sevan and was ready to provide any further
assistance. `This is precisely the type of assistance that is now
needed to pursue justice in this case,’ the letter said.
The former government of Saddam Hussein’s raised $1.8 billion through
kickbacks and surcharges on the sale of oil in the program. But
Saddam is said to have earned $10 billion more from oil that he
smuggled out of the country outside of the UN program, according to
official reports.