Mitterrand's son to face trial over arms sales to Angola

Jean-Christophe Mitterrand, the son of the late president, and 42 other people, including several big names, have been sent for trial in connection with alleged illegal arms dealing with Angola in the 1990s.

M. Mitterrand, 60, will join the former interior minister Charles Pasqua, and the former head of the European development bank, Jacques Attali, among the accused at the trial later this year.

Other defendants will include the French businessman Pierre Joseph Falcone and the Franco-Israeli-Russian tycoon Arcady Gaydamak, who are accused of organising several unauthorised sales of arms to Angola during that country's civil war in the late 1990s. Both men live abroad and have refused to return to France for questioning by an investigating magistrate.

M. Mitterrand is a former journalist who became African policy adviser to his father, President François Mitterrand. He was often used as an emissary to African leaders, who gave him the nick-name "papa m'a dit" (daddy told me).

M. Mitterrand, who denies any wrong-doing, is accused of taking money from the two principal defendants to help smoothe their business dealings in France. It is alleged that the money came from $790m (£400m) in illegal arms sales to Angola, mostly conducted after President Mitterrand left office in 1995.

M. Mitterrand, M. Attali, M. Pasqua and other defendants are expected to argue that they had no connection with the arms deals themselves. M. Gaydamak, whose son is the principal shareholder in Portsmouth FC, has indicated that he will return to France for the trial.