OTTAWA (AFP) — An arms dealer who implicated a former Canadian prime minister in an alleged kickbacks scam lost on Thursday his latest bid to avoid extradition to Germany to face fraud, bribery and tax evasion charges.
"Karlheinz Schreiber's application has been dismissed," Ontario Court of Appeal spokesman John Kromkamp told AFP.
However, the 73-year-old industrialist's removal will be delayed until December 1 at the request of his lawyers to allow them time to consider their next move.
Schreiber has fought a German extradition request ever since he was first arrested in Canada in August 1999 on a provisional warrant.
He was indicted in Germany for his alleged role in a campaign finance scandal involving former German chancellor Helmut Kohl's Christian Democratic Union party and commissions earned for negotiating arms sales.
More recently, he prompted a furor in Ottawa with new revelations of an alleged relationship with former Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney dating back more than two decades.
In court documents filed last week, Schreiber said Mulroney had accepted cash payments of 300,000 dollars from his secret Zurich bank account at three hotel meetings in New York and Montreal.
Mulroney, who was prime minister from 1984 to 1993, had arranged the money deal two days before he left office, and later tried to cover it up, Schreiber added.
Mulroney has denied any wrongdoing.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, under pressure from opposition parties who pointed to Harper's friendship with Mulroney, ordered a public inquiry into Schreiber's allegations.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police also reopened an investigation this week of Mulroney's dealings with Schreiber, and opposition parties are clamoring for Schreiber to be kept in Canada to testify at the public inquiry.
Opposition Liberal leader Stephane Dion on Thursday urged Justice Minister Rob Nicholson to use his discretionary power to stop Schreiber's deportation.
"Otherwise it will be a scandal within a scandal," Dion told reporters.
Meanwhile, according to reports, German authorities promised to make Schreiber available for questioning in Canada's public inquiry should he be extradited.
Germany alleges Schreiber evaded income taxes on 46 million dollars by hiding commissions he earned for negotiating the sale of helicopters, aircraft and armaments.
Prosecutors also allege he bribed Germany's then-defence minister, Ludwig Holger Pfahls, to help secure the sale of 36 army tanks by German manufacturer Thyssen AG to Saudi Arabia, and defrauded Saudi Arabia by siphoning off large commissions in the deal.
In 1995, Canadian federal police accused Mulroney of accepting kickbacks from Schreiber for the purchase of Airbus jets for carrier Air Canada in 1988.
Mulroney subsequently sued the government for libel, and under oath, denied any illicit dealings with Schreiber. He received a government apology and a 2.1-million dollar settlement and the case was closed.
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