Patria Expects Slovenia Deal to Stay Intact
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Published: 5 Sep 12:30 EDT (16:30 GMT)
HELSINKI - Finnish defense firm Patria, which is being investigated for bribery, said Sept. 5 it did not expect a huge deal with Slovenia to be revoked, despite a Slovene threat to freeze the contract.
"At the moment, as I have understood things, there is no fear that the deal will be cancelled," Olli Happonen, Patria's General Councel, told AFP.
He acknowledged, however, that the deal could fall through if the bribery charges are proven, due to an anti-corruption clause in the contract.
"Everybody is innocent until a court finds them guilty," he said.
Slovenian Defense Minister Karl Erjavec warned Sept. 4 he would "freeze" the Patria deal if the company failed to provide details of the bribery investigation in Finland.
"I requested clear explanations from Patria on why their people were detained," Erjavec told POP TV.
"I expect the answer in 24 hours. If I don't get it, I'll freeze the deal," he added, without giving any more details.
Happonen merely said Sept. 5 that "we have received a request (for details), and we have replied to it," adding that the response was confidential.
Patria won the 278-million-euro ($402 million) contract in 2006 to sell 135 armored vehicles to Slovenia - the biggest military contract ever signed by the former Yugoslav republic and now EU member state.
Since mid-May, several people have been arrested in Finland in connection with the investigation into whether Patria bribed officials to win contracts in Egypt and Slovenia.
The deal has become the subject of heated debate in Slovenia, especially since Finnish public broadcaster YLE on Monday reported that Patria had bribed Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa to win the deal.
Jansa has demanded "an explanation and an apology" from YLE.
The Finnish foreign ministry said Friday it had responded to a diplomatic query from Slovenia, saying it could not "intervene in matters of freedom of the press or the programs broadcast in Finland, and does not have advance information about the content of the broadcast programs."
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