‘Angolagate’ puts French elite in the dock

France's murky political establishment is steeling itself for a court case due to start next Monday in Paris concerning the illegal sale of arms to the government of Angola during the 1990s. The so-called 'Angolagate' hearing is guaranteed to be one of France's most explosive political trials of recent times.

The 486-page indictment seen by The First Post reads like a pastiche of exotic adventurism, implicating high-ranking members of the French establishment, shadowy east European arms dealers, African strong-men and - lingering in the background - the implicit prize of Angola's vast reserves of crude oil.

The case has already drawn comparisons with France's notorious Elf-Aquitaine affair in 2003. That scandal exposed the parallel diplomacy conducted by a powerful and secretive network of Franco-African elites,