German prosecutors are considering a criminal investigation into secret accounts operated by the former chancellor, Dr Helmut Kohl, which could lead to a jail term for the veteran politician.
The prosecutor's office in Bonn confirmed yesterday that Dr Kohl's admission last week that he channelled funds for his Christian Democrats (CDU) through secret accounts could form the basis for embezzlement charges.
"It could provide the basis for an initial suspicion of a criminal act in contravention of Article 266 of the criminal code," a spokesman for the prosecutor's office told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.
According to German law, a defendant can be found guilty of embezzlement even if he did not enrich himself personally and a conviction can carry a jail sentence of up to five years.
Dr Kohl has yet to declare how much money he channelled through the accounts and from whom he received it, when payments were made and how the funds were used. The Bundestag agreed last week to set up an official inquiry into the accounts, which may have contravened the rules governing party funding.
The former chancellor has become ever more isolated in recent days as senior Christian Democrats have been distancing themselves from their erstwhile patriarch. The party has sacked its head of administration, Mr Hans Terlinden, for sending an important document relating to the scandal to Dr Kohl rather than to the current party leader, Dr Wolfgang Schauble.
Dr Schauble's friends are outraged that the former chancellor failed to divulge to colleagues the fact that he was in possession of the document, a detailed record of the secret accounts from the CDU's former accountants.
Dr Kohl has promised to shed as much light as possible on the affair but, according to a report to be published in the news magazine Focus today, he warned a number of former colleagues in the Bundestag to remain silent.
"Keep your mouth shut. Your state chairman got money too," he is reported to have told one deputy.
If the parliamentary inquiry finds that the secret accounts broke the rules on party funding, the CDU could have to pay up to DM100 million into state funds. Mr Willfried Penner, a Social Democrat member of the Bundestag, believes that the opposition party could be facing a financial disaster.
"Kohl has accepted political responsibility but he has loaded the consequences onto his party. If he succeeds, it will be expensive for his party. It could mean financial ruin for the CDU," he said.
