mired in corruption and petrodollars.

Members of the establishment involved in Angolagate include Jean-Christophe Mitterrand (pictured on previous page), eldest son of the former president, former French Interior Minister Charles Pasqua, former Minister of Cooperation for Development Michel Roussin, the Israeli politician Arkadi Gaydamak, whose son Alexandre owns Portsmouth FC, and, last but not least, Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos.

The plot revolves around Dos Santos, whose 29-year rule as potentate of Angola has made him one of the richest men in Africa.

In the early 1990s Dos Santos was fighting a two-decades-old civil war with Jonas Savimbi's UNITA. With the latter amply lubricated with dollars obtained through the sale of 'blood diamonds', and vast swathes of the country under UNITA control, Dos Santos was badly in need of arms and cash.

Enter Jean-Christophe Mitterrand, Africa advisor to the Elysee and nicknamed 'papa-m'a-dit' ('daddy told me') because of his frequent references to his father.

French diplomacy at the time prohibited

any arms sales to a country at war. So, according to the court indictment, a parallel diplomacy arose, with Mitterand, who enjoyed close relations with several ruling African families, introducing Dos Santos (left) to a French businessman named Pierre Falcone. At the time Falcone was simultaneously working as a 'key advisor' to Sofremi, the government defence export agency controlled by the French Interior Ministry, then headed by Pasqua, and running a private company called Brenco.

Pasqua, according to UK-based transparency activists Global Witness, sensed this was a moment to head off US dominance of Angola's rapidly growing oil sector.

According to the indictment, in 1993, just as the balance of war in Angola was tilting irreversibly in UNITA's favour, Dos Santos bought $47m worth of arms from Brenco via a Slovak company for which Arcadi Gaydamak was a signatory. The following year Falcone and Gaydamak signed another deal worth $463m - delivering Russian-made tanks, rockets and helicopters according to French press - using Angola's future oil revenues