German prosecutors today offered to shelve a criminal fraud probe against Dr Helmut Kohl if the former chancellor agrees to pay a fine for illegally accepting secret cash donations in office.
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Dr Helmut Kohl
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While his reputation as one of Europe's major statesmen has been damaged by a slush funds scandal that plunged his opposition Christian Democratic Union into crisis, the move means Dr Kohl could avoid trial and a possible criminal record.
The justice ministry in North Rhine-Westphalia said in a statement that public prosecutors in Bonn, examining whether to charge Dr Kohl for fraud, would close their inquiry in return for payment of a 300,000 mark fine.
A spokeswoman for Dr Kohl said he would make a decision on whether to accept the fine if and when the recommendation was approved by the competent court in Bonn. That could take a few days, she said.
The leader of a separate parliamentary inquiry into whether Dr Kohl's government took bribes said the move could force Dr Kohl to name anonymous donors whose identity he has until now protected.
Although Dr Kohl (70) admits to having broken party funding rules by accepting payments from anonymous donors during the 1990s, he rejects allegations that he was open to bribery and that he defrauded his party.
However, his lawyers have been reported as urging him to accept a fine if offered. Dr Kohl, in Berlin's Reichstag building for a parliamentary debate, was not immediately contactable.
Reuters