Berlin
At the opening of his corruption trial this week, a former German deputy defense minister shocked observers by issuing a confession. Ludwig-Holger Pfahls admitted to taking $1.2 million from a German arms dealer in 1990 in exchange for facilitating the sale of armored vehicles to the U.S. Pfahls, though, is on trial for a different crime: He is accused of taking $2.4 million in bribes to smooth a similar sale to Saudi Arabia in 1991; he is expected to confess to that as well. “I cannot explain how this blunder came about,” Pfahls told the court. “I somehow got caught up in things.” Pfahls fled Germany six years ago, when he was first accused, and was finally arrested last year in France.
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