Berlin - The former German chancellor, Dr Helmut Kohl, broke weeks of silence yesterday to say that charges he had accepted bribes from a French company had vanished into thin air.
Speaking to journalists outside his apartment, Dr Kohl also insisted his government did not destroy files related to the 1992 sale of the Leuna oil refinery to Elf Acquitaine, which have disappeared under mysterious circumstances. "There is nothing left from the many lies - for example that Francois Mitterrand bribed me - that have circulated in recent weeks," he said, referring to media reports that the late French president arranged bribes for the Leuna deal.